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No. 


THE 


Religion  of  Evolution. 


BY 


M.   J.    SAVAGE, 

'/ 

AUTHOR   OF    "CHRISTIANITY   THE   SCIENCE    OF    MANHOOD." 


BOSTON 
GEO.    H.     ELLIS,    141    FRANKLIN    STREET 

1897 


3 


Copyright,  1876, 
BY  LOCKWOOD,   BROOKS,  &  CO. 


TO 

THE  CHURCH   OF  THE   UNITY; 

WILLING   TO    BEAR  THE   PAIN  OF  THOUGHT,    BRAVE    ENOUGH 

TO    HEAR    WHAT    IS    NEW,   AND    HAVING    FAITH 

THAT    GOD    WILL    LEAD   THE    FREE 

AND  THE  EARNEST  TO 

HIMSELF, 

THIS    BOOK    IS    LOVINGLY    DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


In  some  form  the  theory  of  evolution  is  now 
accepted  by  nearly  all  the  leading  scientific  and  phil- 
osophic students  of  the  world.  It  is  rapidly  giving 
its  own  shape  to  the  thought  of  civilization.  Science, 
art,  human  life,  religion,  and  reform  are  becoming  its 
disciples  ;  and  their  tendencies  in  the  near  future 
must  be  largely  determined  by  it. 

Workers  in  many  departments  of  thought  have 
already  reshaped  their  teachings  into  accordance  with 
its  principles  ;  but  so  far  as  I  know,  in  this  country, 
no  book  has  been  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  its  effect 
upon  religion. 

This  volume  makes  no  claim  to  completeness.  It  is 
only  an  essay  in  answer  to  the  question,  "  If  evolu- 
tion is  true,  what  have  we  left  in  the  way  of  reli- 
gion ?  "  Some  scientists  affirm,  and  some  frightened 
religionists  exclaim,  that  evolution  is  essentially  athe- 
istic and  irreligious ;    and  that,  if  it  is  true,  we  have 

5 


PREFACE. 


left  no  religion  at  all.  The  writer  believes  that  it  is 
the  business  of  both  science  and  religion  to  seek  first 
and  always  for  the  truth  ;  for  the  truth  only  leads  to 
God.  He  further  believes  that  it  is  waste  of  time  to 
seek  to  reconcile  assumed  truths.  Truths  are  already 
at  one,  and  need  no  reconciliation.  Find  and  apply 
truth,  then  :  the  result  is  God's. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Science  and  Religion 

II.  Theory  of  the  World    .  . 

III.  The  God  of  Evolution    .  . 

IV.  The  Man  of  Evolution   . . 
V.  The  Devil;  or,  The  Nature  of  Evil 

VI.  The  Evolution  of  Conscience 

VII.  Love  in  Law 

VIII.  Prayer 

IX.  Bibles  and  the  Bible 

X.  The  Doctrine  of  Atonement 

XI.  Christianity  and  Evolution 

XII.  Immortality 


PAGE. 
II 

31 

49 

73 

93 

112 

I31 
150 
170 
194 
215 
234 


"  Prove  all  things:  hold  fast  that  which  is  good." 

Paul. 

"  Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before, 
But  vaster." 

Tennyson. 

The  truth-seeker  is  the  only  God-seeker. 

The  curse  of  both  religion  and  science,  in  all  ages,  has  been  the  thought 
that  there  was  somewhere  an  ultimate,  —  a  place  to  stop.  Here  we  are, 
finite  minds  in  the  midst  of  infinity.  And,  for  the  finite  that  is  moving 
toward  infinity,  there  is  nowhere  a  place  to  anchor,  but  only  the  privilege 
and  the  opportunity  of  endless  exploration. 

Beneath  all  the  various,  wide-spread,  and  disconnected  labors,  discoveries, 
and  experiments  of  the  great  body  of  scientific  workers,  there  is  the  common 
belief  that  all  scientific  truth  is  one  ;  that  the  universe  is  all  of  one  piece ; 
that  distant  troths  are  only  different  parts  of  one  divine  pattern  that  runs  all 
through  the  whole  visible  garment  of  God.  This  scientific  faith  is  grander 
than  any  that  the  religious  world  has  yet  attained.  But  we  must  come  to 
this.  Religious  truth  is  one,  as  God  is  one.  Go  forth,  then,  ye  religious 
explorers,  and  seek  only  for  truth  ;  knowing  that  all  truth-seekers  are 
brothers,  and  must  come  to  hand-clasping  and  looks  of  recognition  by  and 
by!  S. 

"  I  apprehend  that  there  is  but  one  way  of  putting  an  end  to  our 
present  dissensions ;  and  that  is,  not  the  triumph  of  any  existing  system  over 
all  others,  but  the  acquisition  of  something  better  than  the  best  we  now 
have."  Channing. 


"  It  is  popularly  said  abroad,  that  you  have  no  antiquities  in  America. 
If  you  talk  about  the  trumpery  of  three  or  four  thousand  years  of  history, 
it  is  true.  But  in  the  large  sense,  as  referring  to  times  before  man  made 
his  momentary  appearance,  America  is  the  place  to  study  the  antiquities  of 
the  globe.  The  reality  of  the  enormous  amount  of  material  here  has  far  sur- 
passed my  anticipation.  I  have  studied  the  collection  gathered  by  Prof. 
Marsh  of  New  Haven.  There  is  none  like  it  in  Europe,  not  only  in  extent 
of  time  covered,  but  by  reason  of  its  bearing  on  the  problem  of  evolution. 
Whereas,  before  this  collection  was  made,  evolution  was  a  matter  of  specu- 
lative reasoning,  it  is  now  a  matter  of  fact  and  history  as  much  as  the 
monuments  of  Egypt.  In  that  collection  are  the  facts  of  the  succession  of 
forms,  and  the  history  of  their  evolution.  All  that  now  remains  to  be  asked 
is  kow,  and  that  is  a  subordinate  question."  —  Prof.  Huxley,  before  the 
A  merican  Association  for  tlie  A  advancement  of  Science,  A  ugust,  1876. 


The  Religion  of  Evolution. 


i. 

SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION. 

The  phrase,  "the  conflict  between  religion  and  science," 
has  become  a  very  common  one  in  newspaper,  in  maga- 
zine, in  public  address,  and  in  sermon ;  and  it  represents 
the  observed  fact  that  there  is  a  grand  division  running 
through  the  thinking  minds  of  civilization,  on  one  side  of 
which  stand  the  advocates  of  religion,  and  on  the  other 
the  advocates  of  science.  Not,  by  any  means,  that  there 
are  no  religious  men  on  the  scientific  side,  and  no  scien- 
tific men  on  the  religious  side,  but  that  this  division  does 
represent  a  real  and  general  fact,  and  that  these  two  sides 
stand  in  a  certain  antagonism  to  each  other.  But  yet, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  suppose  it  to  be  still  true  that 
there  is  not  a  scientific  man  living  who  would  claim  that 
a  real  truth  of  science  can  by  any  possibility  come  into 
conflict  with  a  real  truth  of  religion ;  and  there  is  not  a 
religious  man  living  but  would  confess  that  it  was  simply 
an  impossibility  that  a  real  religious  truth  should  stand  in 
antagonism  to  a  real  scientific  truth.  But  the  antagonism 
of   the    attitude  still  remains,  because  it  is  true  that  on 

it 


12  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

both  sides  there  are  large  bodies  of  men  that  are  very 
much  more  concerned  in  establishing  their  positions  than 
they  are  in  finding  out  what  is  the  truth.  It  seems  to 
me  a  very  strange  thing  that  any  man  should  be  willing 
to  hold  such  an  attitude  as  this,  either  on  the  side  of 
science  or  religion.  There  is  no  possibility  of  its  being 
for  the  permanent  interest  of  any  man  that  he  should  be 
able  to  establish  himself  in  a  falsehood  ;  for  though  he 
may  build  him  a  house  as  wide  as  the  earth,  and  as  high 
as  the  heavens,  if  its  foundation  be  in  the  sand,  the  floods 
of  the  eternal  movements  of  the  divine  forces  will  some 
time  undermine  and  sweep  it  away.  There  can,  then,  be 
no  interest  in  any  man's  holding  to  a  position  that  is  not 
true  ;  so  that  one  might  suppose  that  the  chief  anxiety  of 
men  would  be,  not  to  prove  that  they  were  right,  but  to 
find  out  whether  they  were  right.  And  yet  I  have  met 
men  among  my  own  personal  friends,  who  would  tell  me 
candidly,  and  with  their  whole  hearts,  that  so  dear  to 
them  had  become  the  positions  that  they  had  inherited, 
even  if  they  were  false,  they  did  not  wish  to  find  it  out ; 
they  did  not  wish  to  be  disturbed;  they  did  not  wish 
to  be  compelled  to  re-adjust  their  thinking  to  any  new 
truths :  for  it  is  one  of  the  inevitable  facts  of  the  world 
that  a  new  truth  is  an  "  unsettler  "  everywhere.  It  comes 
in  to  disturb  and  to  shake  old  institutions,  and  to  demand 
of  men  that  they  do  not  build  forever  their  house  in  the 
place  where  their  fathers  builded,  but  that  they  regard  it 
simply  as  a  tent,  to  be  folded  and  taken  with  them  on  a 
forward  march  towards  something  which  is  higher  and 
grander  and  broader  in  the  way  of  truth. 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION  13 

This  fact  to  which  I  have  alluded  —  that  there  is  this 
antagonism  between  men  on  account  of  their  being 
anxious  to  establish  their  own  positions  rather  than  to 
find  out  truth  —  I  suppose  to  be  true  in  a  larger  degree 
of  the  defenders  of  religion  than  it  is  of  those  that  stand 
on  the  side  of  science;  and  I  conceive  that  there  is  a 
very  natural  and,  in  one  sense,  a  satisfactory  reason  for  it. 
You  cannot  make  any  scientific  man  feel  anxious  about 
any  supposed  scientific  truth  on  the  ground  that  its  truth 
or  falsity  will  endanger  the  welfare  of  his  soul,  either  in 
this  world  or  in  any  other  world.  But  when  a  man  has 
inherited  some  religious  belief  that  is  intertwined  with  all 
the  sacred  associations  of  the  past,  with  the  present 
affections  of  the  soul,  and  with  all  the  dearest  and 
grandest  hopes  of  the  future,  it  seems  to  him,  when  you 
touch  it,  that  you  are  unsettling  the  universe,  that  you  are 
sweeping  away  from  him  every  thing  that  is  dear,  every 
thing  on  which  he  has  been  accustomed  to  rely.  You 
take  away  the  anchor  of  his  soul ;  you  cut  the  cable  which 
bound  him  to  any  sure  hope  and  abiding-place,  and  he  is 
set  adrift  to  float,  nobody  knows  where. 

I  say,  then,  that  it  is  natural  to  a  person  who  has  had 
a  training  like  this  that  he  should  be  jealous  of  the  in- 
coming of  something  that  claims  to  be  scientific  truth, 
that  conflicts  with  what  he  has  been  taught  to  regard  as 
religious  truth. 

Now,  in  order  that  we  may  understand  something  of 
the  principles  of  this  conflict  that  has  been  going  on  since 
f!-ie  dawn  of  civilization,  and  in  the  midst  of  which  we  are 


14  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


still  engaged,  —  in  order  that  we  may  understand  some- 
thing of  the  methods  of  it,  and  that  we  may  be  able  to 
forecast  with  some  degree  of  probability  the  outcome  of 
the  battle  of  the  present  hour,  it  will  be  needful  for  us  to 
go  back,  and  glance  for  a  moment  at  a  few  of  the  fields 
that  have  been  fought  over  and  won  in  the  past. 

Religion  held  a  universal  sway  over  the  mind  of  man 
before  science  was  even  born;  for  religion  is  as  old  as 
the  instincts  of  hope  and  fear  in  the  human  soul,  and  has 
bound  itself  up  with  these  hopes  and  fears ;  so  that  this 
conflict  has  not  simply  arisen  under  Christianity:  it  is 
older  than  Christianity.  I  say  this  because  some  scien- 
tific men  speak  as  though  Christianity,  and  no  other 
religion,  was  the  grand  obstacle  that  had  stood  in  the 
way  of  scientific  progress.  It  is  not  because  Christianity 
is  any  different  in  this  respect  from  any  other  religion  in 
the  world,  but  simply  because  Christianity  happens  to  be 
the  religion  of  a  civilization  where  this  conflict  has  been 
going  on.  But  the  conflict  began  before  Christianity  was 
born.  The  old  Greeks  supposed  that  the  sun,  in  his 
grand  march  across  the  heavens  from  the  east  to  the 
west,  was  a  god  driving  his  flaming  chariot;  and  they 
worshipped  this  god  with  incense  and  with  temples  and 
with  offerings  ;  so  that  his  ritual  was  widespread  all  over 
the  ancient  world.  When,  then,  some  thoughtful  philoso- 
pher came  forward  first,  and,  as  the  result  of  his  study, 
dared  to  broach  the  heresy  that  the  sun  was  no  god,  after 
all,  but  only  a  ball  of  flaming  fire,  he  was  unsettling  the 
foundations  of  the  religion  which  was  dear  to  the  popular 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  i5 


heart ;  and  the  people  resented  it,  and  fought  against  it 
with  just  as  bitter  a  feeling  of  opposition  as  that  which 
actuates  the  hearts  of  the  theological  defenders  of  what 
they  claim  to  be  essential  religion  at  the  present  day. 

But  the  first  great  battle  between  the  advocates  of 
science  and  the  advocates  of  religion  was  that  concerning 
the  geography  of  the  world,  —  the  question  as  to  whether 
it  was  round,  or  whether  it  was  a  flat  surface.  It  seems 
strange  and  incomprehensible  to  us,  to-day  that  it  could 
possibly  make  any  difference  to  the  advocates  of  religion 
whether  the  world  was  round  or  flat ;  and  yet  one  of  the 
bitterest  contests  of  the  world  raged  over  this  question  for 
ages.  And  so  high  did  the  feeling  run,  and  so  bitter  was 
the  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  priests  of  the  Catholic 
Church  (and  the  ministers  of  the  Protestant  Church,  as 
well,  —  for  they  were  linked  together  hand  in  hand  in 
fighting  that  battle),  that  one  of  the  priests  of  the  middle 
ages  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  Church  could  better 
endure  having  the  existence  of  God  called  in  question,  or 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or  the  religious  nature  of  man, 
than  that  it  should  listen  to  the  damnable  heresy  that  the 
world  was  a  globe,  and  not  a  flat  surface.  And  Luther 
and  Melanchthon,  those  grand  lights  of  the  Reformation, 
went  quite  as  far  in  their  opposition  to  this  new  science  as 
the  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church.  And  what  were  their 
arguments  ?  Why,  such  as  these  :  That  the  Bible  spoke 
everywhere  of  "  the  face  of  the  earth,"  and  said  nothing 
about  any  other  side  but  the  face.  Again :  that,  if  there 
were  any  antipodes  living  on  the  other  side  of  the  world, 


16  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


then   the   character   and   government   of    God  were   im- 
peached, because  he    had  made   no   provision   for  their 
salvation.     And  again  :  the  command  had  been  given  to 
the  apostles  to  go  into  all  the  world,  and  to  preach  the 
gospel  to   every  creature;    and    since   the   apostles   had 
never  visited  any  nations  at  the  antipodes,  therefore  there 
were  no  such  nations.     These  were  their  arguments,  — 
arguments  brought  from  a  superficial  understanding  of  the 
biblical  use  of   language.     And  they  went  so  far  as  to 
construct  their  theory  of  the  world  after  the  precise  pat- 
tern of  the   Jewish  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness,  saying 
that  that  was  the  divine  copy  of  the  universe  ;  and  that, 
as  the  tabernacle  was  twice  as  long  as  it  was  wide,  and 
had  just  such  and  such  proportions,  therefore  the  universe 
was  in  just  this  same  shape,  —  an  oblong  square ;   and 
that  the  world  was  supported  by  pillars,  as  the  tabernacle 
was  supported  by  pillars  ;  and  they  invented  some  sort  of 
a  grand  mountain  at  one  end  of  this  oblong  square,  be- 
hind which  the  sun  was  pulled  at  night  when  it  was  dark. 
So  far  did  they  carry  this  battle  over  the  question  as  to 
whether   the  world  was  round   or  flat.     And   one   thing 
which  seems  very  remarkable  to  us  who  are  accustomed 
to  go  to  Nature  and  interrogate  her,  when  we  wish  to  get 
an  answer,  is,  that  it  never  seemed  to  occur  to  these  men 
to  find  out  whether  the  world  was  round  by  travelling 
over  it,  by  sailing  around  it,  by  measuring  an  arc  of  its 
surface  to  see  whether  it  was  curved  or  not.     It  never 
seemed  to  occur  to  them  to  go  to  the  natural  phenomenon 
itself,  and  ask  it  the  question.     Instead  of  that,  they  went 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION  17 

to  certain  old  books,  that  they  regarded  as  sacred,  to  find 
out  what  somebody  who  lived  thousands  of  years  before 
had  thought  about  it.  This,  then,  is  an  indication  of  the 
battle  that  was  fought  over  the  question  of  geography. 

The  next  great  conflict  was  over  the  position  of  the 
earth  in  the  solar  system,  —  as  to  whether  the  earth  was 
the  centre,  or  the  sun  was  the  centre.  And  here,  again, 
instead  of  looking  to  find  out  whether  their  theory  was 
true,  instead  of  prosecuting  the  study  of  astronomy, 
instead  of  opening  their  eyes,  they  seemed  to  think  that 
to  dare  to  scrutinize  the  works  of  God  was  impiety  and 
heresy ;  and  so  science  was  fought  against  with  every 
weapon,  not  only  of  the  civil  power  in  the  way  of  persecu- 
tion, but  with  the  most  opprobrious  epithets  and  with 
social  ostracism.  And  here,  again,  the  arguments  are  very 
strange  that  they  bring.  Luther  laughed  at  and  ridiculed 
the  foolish  scientific  men  of  his  day  who  said  that  the  sun 
was  the  centre  of  the  solar  system,  and  that  the  earth 
revolved  about  it,  and  clinched  his  argument  by  saying 
that  Joshua  commanded  the  sun  to  stand  still,  and  not  the 
earth ;  and  therefore  it  could  not  possibly  be  that  the 
earth  moved  around  the  sun,  instead  of  the  sun  moving 
around  the  earth.  And  then,  when  Galileo  invented  his 
telescope,  so  that  he  could  see  the  moons  of  Jupiter, 
instead  of  looking  through  his  telescope,  and  finding  out 
whether  he  really  did  see  the  moons,  they  charged  him 
with  being  in  league  with  Satan,  and  said,  that,  through 
Satan's  help,  he  had  invented  an  instrument  which  created 
the  heavenly  bodies  which  he  claimed  to  see.     And  here, 


18  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

again,  with  these  old  ideas  inherited  from  the  past,  they 
fought  against  finding  out  what  were  the  real  facts  in  the 
realm  of  nature  concerning  the  way  in  which  God  had 
constituted  this  wondrous  universe  of  ours. 

The  next  battle  that  I  shall  speak  of  (I  dwell  on  these 
very  lightly,  simply  by  way  of  illustration)  is  one  that  you 
are  familiar  with  yourselves,  that  has  been  fought  out  in 
the  lifetime  of  almost  every  one  that  has  attained  to  the 
age  of  twenty-five  years,  —  the  battle  over  the  antiquity  of 
the  earth  and  of  man.  The  battle  started  in  the  new  dis- 
coveries of  geology.  Here,  again,  the  same  old  weapons 
were  used  in  the  fight  against  this  new,  grand,  and  higher 
truth.  When  sea-shells  and  the  fossil  bones  of  fishes 
were  discovered  upon  the  sides,  and  near  the  summits,  of 
high  mountains,  instead  of  believing  what  geology  taught, 
—  that  the  mountains  had  themselves  been  under  the  sea, 
and  had  afterwards  been  raised  by  the  natural  action  of 
the  forces  of  the  earth,  —  they  claimed  that  the  presence 
of  these  things  must  be  explained  upon  the  theory  that 
the  flood  had  carried  them  there,  and  had  left  them  behind 
when  it  had  passed  away:  or  they  claimed  that  these 
were  false  creations  of  Satan,  made  as  an  imitation  of, 
and  a  parody  upon,  the  works  of  God :  or  they  claimed 
that  they  were  the  first  attempts  of  God  in  the  way  of 
creation;  that  he  had  to  try  several  times  before  he 
succeeded,  and  that  these  were  the  remnants  of  his 
failures ;  that  he  had  thought  out  better  ways  afterwards, 
and  created  the  existing  specimens  of  life  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  after  newer  and  finer  patterns.     And  at  that 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  19 

time  the  grand  obstacle  to  the  reception  of  the  new  and 
magnificent  truths  that  geology  taught  was  simply  the  old 
interpretation  of  Genesis.  Because  Archbishop  Usher 
had  ciphered  it  out  that  the  world  was  only  six  thousand 
years  old,  therefore  geology  could  not  be  true ;  and 
because  of  the  institution  of  the  sabbath,  based  on  the 
supposition  that  God  worked  six  days,  was  then  tired, 
so  that  he  wanted  to  rest  on  the  seventh,  and  therefore  set 
apart  that  day,  —  this  was  again  used  as  a  conclusive  argu- 
ment against  the  facts  that  could  be  seen  by  simply  looking 
at  them.  But  this  battle  is  at  last  fought  out  and  ended ; 
and  the  antiquity  of  the  world,  and  the  antiquity  of  man, 
reaching  back,  not  six  thousand  years,  nor  ten  thousand, 
nor  twenty  thousand,  but  possibly,  in  the  case  of  humanity 
itself,  a  hundred  thousand,  certainly  in  the  case  of  the 
world  thousands  of  thousands,  if  not  thousands  of 
millions,  —  this  question  is  at  last  absolutely  settled  for 
the  mind  of  every  man  who  is  at  all  familiar  with  the 
facts  that  go  to  prove  it. 

And  then  there  is  one  battle  more  that  I  will  glance  at, 
—  one  which  is  raging  very  furiously  at  the  present  time, 
represented  on  one  side  by  men  like  Herbert  Spencer, 
Darwin,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  the  German  Haeckel,  and  on 
the  other  by  the  leading  men  of  the  theological  world ; 
and  this  battle  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  concerning 
the  methods  of  creation,  and  what  was  the  origin  of  life 
upon  the  globe,  and  by  what  process  living  creatures  have 
developed  from  the  first  simple  beginnings  in  the  primeval 
oceans  up  to  the  grandest  manifestations  of  the  intellect 


20  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


of  humanity.  This  is  the  battle  in  the  midst  of  which  we 
are  living  to-day.  I  shall  say  nothing  in  regard  to  the 
merits  of  it  at  this  time,  because  it  does  not  come  in  as 
a  necessary  part  of  my  subject. 

But  now  let  us  look  for  a  moment,  and  see  what  are 
some  of  the  principal  results  of  these  battles  between  reli- 
gion and  science.  And,  in  the  first  place,  I  should  think 
it  would  be  a  very  discouraging  fact  for  those  who  are 
so  afraid  of  science,  that,  in  every  single  one  of  the  grand 
conflicts  of  the  past,  the  advocates  of  the  popular  religion 
of  the  time  have  been  beaten  out  and  out ;  so  that  to-day 
there  is  not  a  remnant  left  of  them.  There  has  not  been 
a  well-thought-out  and  well-arranged  contest  between  the 
advocates  of  science  and  the  advocates  of  religion  in  the 
history  of  the  past,  in  which  the  advocates  of  science  have 
not  been  completely  and  permanently  triumphant.  What 
is  the  next  result  ?  The  next  result  is,  that  religion,  so  far 
from  receiving  any  detriment  on  account  of  the  overthrow 
of  those  that  have  assumed  to  be  her  champions,  has 
grown  grander  and  more  magnificent  every  time.  Re- 
ligion, in  other  words,  has  been  helped,  advanced,  uplifted, 
magnified,  and  made  grander  by  the  conquests  of  science. 
And  how?  Not  that  certain  definite  forms  of  religion, 
certain  theories  of  theology,  certain  sectarian  claims,  have 
not  been  injured ;  for  these  have  been  overthrown,  and 
ground  to  powder.  But  these  are  not  religion :  these 
are  simply  the  false  and  mistaken  theories  of  men. 
These  have  been  trodden  down  in  the  track  of  the 
advancing  thought  of  humanity ;   but   religion  has   been 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  21 

made  grander.  Just  think  of  it  for  a  moment !  The  God 
of  that  little  universe  which  was  patterned  after  the  Jewish 
tabernacle  was  simply  a  gigantic  and  non-natural  man. 
He  was  simply  the  autocrat  of  a  little  kingdom  not  so 
large  in  the  conception  of  the  world,  at  that  time,  as  the 
United  States  is  to-day ;  simply  a  sovereign  ruler,  who 
could  make  the  mountains  tremble  with  his  footstep,  the 
rumbling  of  the  thunder  being  the  roll  of  his  chariot- 
wheels,  or  the  threatening  tones  of  his  voice,  while  the 
lightning  was  the  gleam  of  his  sword,  or  the  flash  of  his 
eye.  Think  of  a  God  like  that!  —  not  grander  than  the 
Olympian  Jupiter.  And  now  words  and  time  both  fail 
me  to  do  more  than  ask  you  to  think  of  the  infinite 
enlargement  of  the  conception  of  God  that  has  come 
from  the  revelations  of  science,  —  the  world  a  magnifi- 
cent globe,  though  the  smallest  of  all  the  worlds  with 
which  we  are  familiar,  yet  sweeping  around  the  sun 
in  its  wondrous  orbit ;  and  this  system,  mighty  and 
grand  as  it  is,  one  of  the  very  least  with  which  we 
are  acquainted,  and  the  universe  made  up  of  a  countless 
number  of  unspeakably  grand  systems  and  galaxies  that 
stretch  off  and  off  and  off,  until  we  know  not  whether 
this  material  universe  of  ours  be  not  itself  absolutely 
infinite  and  unbounded.  Think  of  the  difference  in  the 
human  conception  of  the  God  that  resides  at  the  centre, 
who  is  the  life  and  force  and  power  and  beauty  and  glory 
of  a  universe  like  this.  And  this  is  the  object  of  our 
religion,  that  the  advance  of  science  has  given  us,  —  an 
advance  right  in  the  teeth  of  the  defenders  of  religion, 


22  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  made  at  the  cost  of  overthrowing  and  trampling 
down  that  which  the  religious  advocates  of  the  time 
regarded  as  essential  to  the  very  existence  of  religion 
itself.  This  is  an  indication,  an  illustration,  of  how  science 
has  exalted  our  conception  of  God,  of  the  universe,  of 
the  nature  of  man  and  the  grandeur  of  human  destiny ; 
so  that  religion  has  been  an  unspeakable  gainer  by  being 
defeated  in  its  conflicts  with  science.  And  yet  there  has 
resulted  one  incidental  evil,  —  an  evil  not  growing  out 
of  the  fact  that  religion  was  defeated ;  for  it  would  have 
been  the  worst  possible  thing  for  humanity  if  religion 
had  gained  in  this  contest  with  the  science  of  old :  but 
this  incidental  evil  has  followed  from  the  simple  fact  that 
religionists  put  themselves  in  the  way  of  the  advance  of 
truth  concerning  God  and  his  universe.  And  how  has 
the  evil  been  wrought  ?  It  has  been  wrought  in  this 
way  :  Scientific  men  have  come  to  look  upon  the  church 
and  theology  as  simply  superstitions,  outworn  obstructions 
in  the  pathway  of  the  progress  of  discovery.  And  they 
have  been  justified  in  regarding  those  who  have  put  them- 
selves forth  prominently  as  the  advocates  of  religion  as 
obstructionists  in  the  way  of  the  advance  of  truth ;  for 
every  single  time  that  there  has  been  made  a  proposal  to 
enlarge  the  kingdom  of  definite  knowledge,  there  has 
been  the  s  une  old  tiresome  outcry  of  "  Science  falsely 
so  called ! '  md  the  opposition  of  religion,  on  the  ground 
that  they  were  driving  God  out  of  his  universe.  Why, 
when  Newton  discovered  the  law  of  gravitation,  that 
which  all  ministers  now  for  a  hundred  years  have  been 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  23 

speaking  about  as  one  of  the  grandest  illustrations  of 
the  power  and  greatness  of  God,  —  when  Newton  first 
made  that  discovery,  he  was  branded  as  an  atheist  and 
an  infidel  by  the  Church,  because,  as  they  said,  he  had 
taken  the  universe  out  of  God's  hands,  and  had  given 
it  into  the  keeping  of  a  law.  And  so  every  time  that 
there  is  a  new  law  discovered,  the  same  old  cry  is  raised, 
until  to-day  the  crowning  objection  that  is  urged  against 
the  law  of  evolution  is,  that  it  is  driving  God  clear 
out  of  his  universe ;  as  though  a  law  were  any  thing 
more  than  simply  a  name  for  a  method  of  divine  work- 
ing. And  the  broader  you  make  the  law,  the  more  com- 
prehensive and  sweeping,  the  longer  its  reach,  only  the 
more  grand  and  magnificent  become  the  thought,  and 
the  conception  of  a  God  who  is  able  thus  to  weave  a 
network  of  law  that  shall  cover  the  universe,  and  reach 
through  all  time. 

And  now  let  us  stop  for  a  moment,  after  reviewing 
these  contests,  and  let  us  dare  to  look  this  thing  called 
science  in  the  face.  What  is  science  ?  Why  should  reli- 
gious men  be  afraid  of  it?  That  they  are  afraid,  and 
that  even  liberal  men  and  women  are  afraid  of  it,  I  have 
found  out  by  personal  conversation  with  some  of  my  own 
parishioners  and  friends.  And  there  is  a  sort  of  uneasy 
feeling  on  the  part  of  many,  that  when  a  minister  says 
"  science "  in  the  pulpit,  he  has  somehow  temporarily 
dropped  his  real  vocation  ;  that  he  has  left  the  work  of 
preaching  God's  truth,  and  is  talking  about  man's  theories 
and  ideas ;  that  he  is  really  trenching  on  the  ground  of 


24  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


secularism,  doing  work  appropriate  for  Monday,  but  not 
for  Sunday.     Let  us,  then,  I  say,  for  a  moment  look  this 
matter  of  science  in  the  face,  and  see  if  we  can  find  out 
what  it  is.     Science  is  nothing  more  nor   less  than   the 
arranged,  organized,  definite,  verifiable  knowledge  of  the 
world.     It  is  nothing  more  fearful  than  that.     We  know, 
for  example,  that  a  stream  of  water  cannot  possibly  rise 
higher  than  its  fountain.    Having  established  that  as  a  law 
of  the  movement  of  water,  we  have  established  so  much  as 
being  a  part  of  science.     Again :  we  know,  as  another  ex- 
ample that  certain  chemical  elements  brought  together  in 
solution  will  arrange  themselves,  under  certain  conditions, 
into  a  crystal  of  a  certain  form  ;  that  they  will  do  it  every 
time.    There,  again,  is  simply  another  fact  of  science.    We 
know  now,  since  the  battle  is  fought  out  and  won,  that  the 
earth  turns  around  on  its  own  axis  once   in  twenty-four 
hours,  and  that  it  revolves  around  the  sun.     These,  again, 
are  simple  facts  of  science.     That  is,  any  thing  concerning 
man ;  concerning  human  society ;  concerning  the  earth  ; 
concerning  the  animals  that  inhabit  the  earth,  the  grasses, 
the  herbs,  the  flowers  that  spring  out  of  its  soil ;  concern- 
ing the  clouds  that  sweep  through  the  air ;  concerning  the 
atmosphere  itself;   concerning  the  sun   and  the  stars, — 
any  thing  that  we  know  and  can  prove  about  any  of  these 
things  is  science.     It  is  real  science  when  it  can  be  veri- 
fied, and  when  it  is  not  somebody's  guess  or  supposition. 
Now,  there   are   a  great   many  things   that    are    simply 
believed,  a  great  many  theories  that  are  called  hypothe- 
ses.     They   are  assumed  as  the  working  implements  of 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  25 

science.  They  are  not  science  until  they  are  established. 
Things  that  are  proved,  and  that  can  be  proved  again,  are 
science.  And  here  is  one  grand  advantage  that  scientific 
truth  has  over  any  other,  —  that  which  is  true  in  science 
is  true  everywhere,  and  it  is  true  always.  I  do  not  accept 
it  on  the  basis  of  a  man's  dream  who  lived  five  thousand 
years  ago ;  I  do  not  accept  it  because  somebody  comes  to 
me,  and  says  that  he  talked  with  an  angel,  and  the  angel 
told  him  so ;  I  do  not  accept  it  because  some  man  says, 
"  I  was  inspired  to  write  such  and  such  things,  and  this 
was  one  of  the  things  that  I  was  told  to  write ;"  I  do  not 
accept  it  on  testimony  from  anybody.  It  is  a  truth  of 
the  living,  working  God,  right  before  my  eyes  to-day; 
and  I  can  prove  it  now,  and  I  can  prove  it  to-morrow, 
just  as  well  as  it  was  proved  yesterday ;  so  that  there  is 
no  possible  chance  for  contradiction  or  conflict  as  to 
whether  it  is  true  or  not.  That  is  the  one  grand  thing 
that  is  claimed  in  favor  of  the  methods  and  facts  of 
science. 

And  now,  is  this  science  sacred,  or  is  it  secular  ?  There 
is  no  possible  way  by  which  I  can  absolutely  settle  it  that 
every  part  of  the  Bible  was  inspired  by  God.  There  is 
no  possible  way  by  which  I  can  find  out  how  much  of  the 
Pentateuch  Moses  wrote,  or  whether  he  was  inspired  to 
write  that  which  he  did  write,  or  whether  he  wrote  it  out 
of  his  own  human  wisdom.  There  is  no  possible  way,  I 
say,  by  which  I  can  establish  questions  like  these.  And 
yet  these  things  by  many,  by  the  multitudes  of  Christen- 
dom to-day,  are  held  out   before    us   as    the  things    that 


26  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

are  peculiarly  and  especially  sacred ;  and  our  reverence 
is  demanded  for  them.     But  whether  I  know  any  thing 
else  in  the  world,  if  there  be  a  God  at  all,  I  know  that  he 
is  the  author,  the  life,  the  force,  the  beauty,  the  glory,  of 
this  universe  that  he  has  made.     And  when  I  look  upon 
some   little  flower  bursting  through  the  sod,  I  am  look- 
ing directly  into   the  secrets  of   God's  beauty  and  God's 
taste.     And  when  I  look  into  the  eyes  of  my  friend,  and 
when  I  see  the  self-sacrifice,  the  self-denial,  the  love  that 
is  prompted  by  his  heart,  I  am  looking  at  a  fact  of  sci- 
ence, something  that  I  can  recognize  and  prove  as  a  part 
of  human   nature  ;   and  I  am  at  the  same  time  looking 
into  the  divine  mystery  of  the  love  and  the  self-sacrifice 
of  God.     When  I  look  at  the  stars  coursing  their  ways 
through    the    blue    deeps   of    heaven,    I    am,    as  Kepler 
said  of   old,   "thinking  over  after  him  again  God's  own 
thoughts."      And  so,  anywhere  where  God  has  been,  or 
where  God  is  now  (for  he  is  now  where  he  ever  has  been), 
wherever  God  is,  I  look  upon  his  very  footstep,  and  I  can 
put  my  finger  into  his  own  finger-prints  ;  and  I  can  see 
God's   life  in  the  growth  and  progress  of   nature  about 
me  ;  I  can  feel  the  divine  pulsations  in  the  air,  and  in  the 
life   of   my  body  ;  I  am   living  in  the  midst  of  the  only 
temple  that  God  himself  has  consecrated,  and  that  I  can 
be  absolutely  sure  is  a  representation  of  God's  own  work. 
Whether  there  are  mistakes  about  any  thing  else  or  not, 
this  is  certain.     Here,  then,  in  nature,  —  in  sun  and  star, 
and  sky  and  cloud,  and  ocean  and  earth,  and  grass  and 
flowers   and   trees,    and   human   nature,  —  I   am   looking 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  27 

directly  into  a  revelation  of  God  ;  and  if  I  can  read  it,  I 
can  read  the  very  thoughts  and  processes  and  methods 
of  the  divine  working  and  development.    W- 

This,  then,  is  science,  that  men  dare  call  irreligious ; 
that  men  dare  decry  in  the  name  of  human  traditions,  and 
human  systems,  and  human  dreams,  and  human  follies,  and 
human  superstitions.  If  there  be  any  one  thing  that  is 
the  sacred  book  and  teaching  and  life  and  outcome  and 
revelation  of  God's  own  heart  and  God's  own  power,  it  is 
that  which  is  called  science. 

And  now,  in  just  a  word,  what  is  religion  ?  and  why 
need  religion  be  afraid  of  science  ?  and  what  ought  to 
be  the  real  relation  existing  between  science  and  religion  ? 
Religion,  —  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  very  short  definition  ; 
and  yet,  if  you  will  think  about  it  as  long  as  you  will,  I  do 
not  believe  you  can  find  any  thing  that  reaches  beyond  its 
limits,  —  religion  simply  means  the  relationship,  as  to  right\ 
or  wrong,  in  which  man  stands  to  his  God  and  to  his  fel- 
low-man. This  is  the  whole  sum  and  substance  of  x&\\-/ 
gion.     It  covers  and  includes  it  all. 

Now,  then,  what  can  science  do  for  this  religion  ?  Sci-^ 
ence  has  been  doing  for  hundreds  of  years  one  of  the 
greatest  services  possible.  It  has  been  destroying  the 
superstitions,  the  crudities,  the  falsehoods,  the  misconcep- 
tions of  men  concerning  religion.  For  example,  the  doc?' 
trines  of  astrology,  of  demoniacal  possession,  of  witchcraft, 
the  doctrine  of  the  material  resurrection  of  the  body,  of  a 
material  hell  just  under  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and 
many  others  that  were  once  considered  central  and  essen- 


28  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


tial  parts  of  religion,  —  these  things  which  were  only  hurts 
and  damages,  barnacles  on  the  ship  that  hindered  its 
sailing,  —  these  things  science  has  stripped  off,  and  thrown 
away,  and  utterly  destroyed. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  men  have  cried  out  against  sci- 
ence because  it  has  done  these  things ;  for  if  once  a  man 
identifies  his  own  thought  with  the  very  central  life  and 
thought  of  the  universe,  of  course,  when  you  touch  him, 
he  thinks  the  throne  of  God  is  giving  way.     But  science 
has  reconstructed  religious  thought :  that  is  one  thing  that 
it  has  done  for  it.     Another  thing  I  have  already  enlarged 
upon.     It  has  heightened  infinitely  the  objects  of  religion,N 
giving   us   a  grander  God,   a   nobler   humanity,   a   more 
magnificent   universe   as   the    theatre   for  human    action./ 
Another  thing :  if  I  am  to  understand  definitely  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong,  if,  in  other  words,  I  am  to  be 
intelligently    moral,  if    I  am   to   educate   my   conscience 
after  the  true  pattern,  I   must  learn   definitely  what  are 
the  facts  concerning  human  nature,  concerning  its  origin, 
concerning   its   history,  concerning   its   relationships.      I 
must  study  out  these,  and  definitely  settle  them  ;  and  in 
that  way  alone  can  I  be  sure  that  I  am  living  a  truly 
moral  life.     For  example,  as  illustrating  what  I  mean  :  the 
larger  part  of  the  religion  of  the  past  has  been   simply 
ritual.     It  has  been  said,  "  You  must  obey  the  priest,  you 
must  go  to  church,  you  must  pay  tithes,  you  must  partake 
of  the  sacraments,  you  must  do  this  thing,  you  must  do 
that  thing."     Now  we  believe,  and,  in  the  light  of  science, 
it  is  perfectly  clear  to  us,  that  none  of  these  things  have 


SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION.  29  ^ 

any  essential  relation  whatever  to  religion ;  and  a  man 
may  be  religious,  and  disregard  every  one  of  them,  and  a 
man  may  do  every  one  of  them,  and  a  thousand  more, 
and  be  utterly  and  through  and  through  irreligious. 

Science,  then,  is  definitely  settling  for  us  what  is  right 
and  what  is  wrong,  by  observing  the  facts  in  regard  to. 
human  nature. 

And,  then,  one  thing  more,  science  is  gradually  giving 
to  religion  its  methods, —  its  method  of  study  and  of  proof. 
Why  is  it  that  intelligent  and  thoughtful  men  to-day  are 
disputing  so  largely  the  great  central  questions,  as  they 
are  claimed  to  be,  of  religion  ?  It  is  one  of  the  strange 
things  of  the  world,  if  the  claims  of  the  Church  are  true, 
that  thoughtful,  intelligent,  earnest,  religious  men  all  over 
the  world  are  disregarding  them.  Why,  no  man  thinks 
of  disregarding  the  law  of  gravitation,  because  he  knows 
he  would  be  a  fool  to  do  it.  Whether  he  disregards  it  or 
not,  it  is  a  grand  fact  of  the  universe,  and,  if  he  comes  in 
its  way,  it  will  crush  him.  No  man  disregards  the  laws 
of  fire,  because  he  knows  that  fire  is  a  fact  of  the  uni- 
verse that  it  will  not  do  to  disregard.  No  man  questions 
as  to  whether  the  earth  moves  around  the  sun,  because  it 
can  be  proved  that  it  moves  around  the  sun.  But  the 
reason  that  religion  is  so  disputed,  that  it  is  so  bandied 
about,  that  it  is  so  fought  against,  is,  that  theology  has 
sought  to  identify  with  religion  a  hundred  or  a  thousand 
things  that  no  man  on  earth  can  prove.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  what  I  mean,  Mahomet  claimed  to  be  inspired 
of  God,  and  to  teach  the  doctrines  of  the  Koran  under 


30  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

inspiration  ;  Swedenborg  claimed  to  be  inspired  of  God  , 
Peter   and  Paul  claimed  to  receive  visions   direct  frorn^ 
God.     Now,  whether  they  did  or  not,   nobody  can  tell./ 
There  is  no  possible  way  of  proving  that  they  did  or  did 
not.     In  other  words,   to  state  very  definitely  and  very 
clearly  what   I   mean,    many  of    the   asserted   truths   of 
religion  have  been  heretofore  "all  in  the  air," — truths  that 
nobody  could  touch,  nobody  could  feel,  nobody  could  see, 
nobody  could  prove ;   so  that  you  could  accept  them  if 
you  wished  to  ;  but  you  could   not   make  it  a  rational 
necessity  for   another   man   to   accept   them.     But  once\ 
bring  the  methods  of  science  into  the  sphere  of  religion,' 
establish  the  existence  of  God ;  establish  the  laws  of  God 
as  manifested  in  the   universe,   establish    the  nature  of 
man,  and  his  religious  nature  as  a  part  of   it,  —  establish 
these  on  the  firm  foundations  of  investigated  and  verified 
truth,  and  no  reasonable  man  will  then  think  of  ques^ 
tioning   them,    or   questioning  whether   he   ought   to   be 
religious,   and   lead  a  religious   life.     He  will   no   more/ 
think  of  questioning  these  than  he  will  the  fact  that  the 
earth  moves  around  the  sun. 

And  so  science  more  and  more  ought  to  come  into  the 
sphere  of  religion,  and  bring  with  it  its  methods  of  inves- 
tigation and  proof.  And  so,  as  the  result  of  the  present 
conflicts,  there  is  coming  a  grander  revelation  of  religion, 
and  an  establishing  of  it  on  immovable  foundations,  such 
as  heretofore  the  world  has  never  seen. 


II. 

THE  THEORY  OF  THE  WORLD. 

At  the  National  Unitarian  Conference  in  Saratoga 
(1874),  one  of  our  most  widely  known  ministers  was 
making  a  speech  on  our  missionary  work  ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  his  remarks,  he  took  occasion  to  speak  slight- 
ingly of  those  who  were  wasting  their  time  on  such 
unpractical  questions  as  the  antiquity  of  the  world  and 
the  origin  of  things.  He  thought  there  were  enough  prob- 
lems of  real,  pressing,  living  importance  right  about  us 
to  absorb  all  our  attention,  and  consume  all  our  energy. 
And  a  year  ago  (1875),  in  Music  Hall,  in  the  course  of  a 
lecture  on  "  Our  Scandalous  Politics,"  Mr.  Parton  took 
occasion  to  ridicule  those  who  were  troubling  their  brains 
over  the  theories  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  instead  of 
grappling  vigorously  with  the  political  evils  and  social 
reforms  of  the  day. 

Thoughts  and  utterances  like  these  are  natural  enough 
to  one  who  does  not  look  beneath  the  superficial  move- 
ments of  the  time  for  the  hidden,  and  oftentimes  remote, 
springs  and  causes  of  the  conditions  of  things.     If  one 

3> 


32  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

knew  nothing  of  the  interior  mechanism  of  a  watch,  he 
might  think  he  could  make  it  keep  good  time  by  turning 
the  hands  round  on  the  face ;  but  a  wiser  person  would 
take  it  to  a  watch-maker,  and  have  the  origin  of  the  outer 
movements  looked  after. 

Men  who  pride  themselves  on  their  reputation  as 
"  practical  "  workers  are  often  very  impatient  of  theories 
and  theorizers.  Theorist  to  them  means  visionary.  They 
regard  him  as  dwelling  in  a  cloud-land,  and  dealing  with 
unsubstantial  fancies.  They  think  his  fitting  representa- 
tive is  the  fabled  dog  on  the  foot-bridge,  who  dropped  his 
bone  while  clutching  at  a  finer  looking  shadow.  They 
propose  to  hold  by  the  bone.  And  yet,  if  you'll  think  of 
it,  every  man  living  has  his  theory  of  every  thing  he  does ; 
and  all  his  practice  is  the  result  of  his  theory.  The 
farmer  who  sneers  at  his  neighbor  for  adopting  the  "  new- 
fangled notions," — the  knowledge  of  chemicals  and  soils 
that  modern  science  has  revealed  to  him,  —  and  who 
pins  him  to  the  walls  of  his  kitchen  with  the  stigma 
"  theorizer  !  "  is  himself  a  theorizer  just  the  same ;  only 
he  keeps  working  away  on  a  theory  that  consists  in  bun- 
gling tools,  —  and  guessing  experiments,  and  back-break- 
ing hand-labor,  —  a  theory  that  kept  his  grandfather  poor, 
a  theory  long  since  exploded  as  deficient  and  half-way,  — 
instead  of  accepting  that  theory  that  new  investigation 
and  successful  practice  have  proved  true.  Should  a  boy 
at  school  attempt  a  problem  in  mathematics,  and  pay  no 
attention  to  the  theory,  the  underlying  principles  accord- 
ing to  which  the  question  could  be  solved,  you  would  say 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE   WORLD.  33 

he  ought  to  exchange  his  seat  for  the  dunce's  block. 
Watt  and  Stephenson  succeeded  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  our  present  railway  system,  when  they  discovered  the 
true  theory  of  the  laws  and  application  of  steam.  Von 
Moltke  is  the  greatest  of  modern  generals,  because  he  has 
the  brain  to  conceive  and  carry  out  the  most  nearly 
perfect  theory  of  the  laws  of  war.  All  of  us  are  theo- 
rizers  who  have  brains  enough  to  think  out,  and  work 
along,  the  lines  of  any  efficient  plan  in  our  business. 
The  banker,  the  merchant,  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the 
minister,  each  has  his  theory ;  and  he  is  successful  just 
according  to  his  ability  to  discover  the  true  theory  of  his 
position,  and  to  carry  it  out  in  effective  practice.  So  you 
might  as  well  talk  of  practically  growing  an  oak  without 
an  acorn  as  to  think  of  successful  practical  work  divorced 
from  theory. 

And  now,  for  a  moment,  glance  at  the  absurdity  of  the 
position  assumed  by  the  preacher  and  lecturer  just  re- 
ferred to.  Society  and  state  are  sick  with  various  mala- 
dies which  they  desire  to  heal :  so,  without  stopping  to 
waste  time  and  strength  on  the  unpractical  questions  of 
the  remote  origins  and  causes  of  the  disease,  they  propose 
to  blister  and  bleed  and  cauterize,  without  any  loss  of 
time.  An  intelligent  physician,  when  called  to  a  patient, 
does  not  consider  it  any  waste  of  time  to  stop  and  investi- 
gate, and  study  the  symptoms,  in  order  to  find  out  what 
the  matter  is ;  and,  the  more  serious  and  urgent  the  dis- 
ease, the  more  careful  he  is  to  do  this. 

Now,  there  is  not  a  single  personal,  social,  political,  or 


34V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

religious  question  of  the  day  that  does  not  run  back  and 
root  itself  in  the  remotest  antiquity  of  the  race.     They  all 
grow  out  of  the  original  nature  of  humanity,  just  as  the 
topmost  twig  or  leaf  of  a  two-thousand-year-old  tree  is 
the  outgrowth  of  the  first  germinal  principle  from  which 
the  ancient  trunk  has  sprang.     Here  is  the  trouble  with^ 
most  of  the  "  reforms  "  of  the  age.     They  are   the  outy 
come  of  transcendental  notions,  purely  empirical  study,  or 
the  hasty  guesses  of  enthusiastic  persons,  who  propose  to 
finish  in  a  year  a  structure  the  foundations  of  which  God 
has   been   centuries   in   laying.      Any   true   reform   must\ 
know  the  drift  of  the  ages,  and  work  in  the  line  of  the 
eternal  movements  of  the  universe.  / 

We  are  now  prepared  to  raise  the  question  as  to 
whether  a  study  of  the  "  theory  of  the  world  "  is  a  practi- 
cal matter.  And,  in  the  first  place,  glance  at  the  facts. 
All  nations  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  have  been 
civilized  enough  to  have  any  thought-out  and  organized 
religion  have  always  connected  their  popular  religion  with 
a  cosmogony,  or  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  universe.  The 
character  of  their  gods,  their  conception  of  humanity, 
their  codes  of  morals,  the  rights  of  rulers  and  subjects, 
their  hopes  and  fears  of  a  future  life,  have  all  been  the 
outcome  of  their  conception  of  the  universe.  Their  whole? 
practical  life  has  been  the  simple  result  of  their  theory  of. 
the  origin  of  things.1  » 

And  how  is  it  with  Christendom  to-day?     The  populai 

1  Carlyle  has  said,  "Tell  me  what  a  man  thinks  of  this  universe,  and  I  will  tell 
you  what  his  religion  is." 


THE   THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD.  35  ^ 


conception  of  the  nature  and  attributes  of  God,  the  nature 
of  man,  the  origin  and  nature  of  evil ;  the  practical  ques- 
tion of  sin ;  the  ecclesiastical  schemes  of  salvation,  heaven 
and  hell;  the  prevailing  theories  of  government  and  of 
social  progress  ;  the  status  of  woman  ;  the  rights  of  chil- 
dren, —  all  the  great  practical  questions  of  humanity  are\ 
the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  Mosaic  cosmogony,  the  Jew- 
ish theory  of  the  origin  of  the  universe.     And  the  present* 
condition,  together  with  the  past  battles  and  progress  of 
science,  is  the  natural  result  of  this  same  cause.      Not 
practical,  or  of  present  importance  ?    There  is  not  a  single^ 
question  of  the  age,   that  for  present,  practical,  pressing 
importance,  begins  to  approach  the  one  that  Spencer  and 
Darwin  and  Haeckel  have  raised.     You  might  as  well  say/ 
that  because  the  sun  is  ninety-two  millions  of  miles  away, 
its  influence,  and  the  laws  of  its  life  and  shining,  are  of  no 
practical  importance  to  Boston.     Boston  is  an  outgrowth    ' 
of  the  sunshine,  from  the  granite  that  paves  its  streets  to 
the  brains  that  rule  in  its  counsels.     So  the  present  active 
world,  with  all  its  widespread  and  multiplied  interests,  is 
the  outgrowth  of  the  far-off  origin  of  things. 

To  specialize  a  little  more  particularly,  and  let  you  see 
how  intimately  religion  is  connected  with  the  theory  of 
the  world,  I  ask  you  to  look  at  the  Church  of  the  last  two 
thousand  years.  Please  observe  that  the  whole  orthodox 
system  is  the  natural  and  logical  outgrowth  of  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  beginning  of  things  in  Genesis.  The 
prevailing  beliefs  about  God,  the  nature  and  fall  of  man, 
total  depravity,  the  need  and  the  schemes  for  supernatural 


36  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

redemption,  the  whole  structure,  creed,  and  ritual  of  the 
Church,  the  common  belief  about  the  nature  and  efficacy 
of  prayer-meetings,  the  whole  system  of  popular  revivals, 
limited  salvation  and  everlasting  punishment,  —  every 
single  one  of  them  is  built  on  the  foundation  of  the 
Mosaic  cosmogony.  And  there  is  not  one  of  them  all 
but  will  be  destroyed  or  modified  when  it  shall  become 
popularly  settled  that  the  Mosaic  cosmogony  is  not  a 
correct  account  of  the  facts. 

Having  made  it  appear,  then,  that  as  practical,  earnest 
men  of  to-day,  it  is  well  worth  our  while  to  look  into  and 
investigate  this  question,  I  now  ask  you  to  go  with  me  to 
a  consideration  of  the  only  theories  that  need  detain  us. 
Of  course  we  need  not  stop  even  to  glance  at  the 
fantastic  notions  that  prevailed  among  so  many  nations 
in  the  childhood  of  the  world.  Only  two  theories,  the 
Mosaic  and  the  Evolution,  even  pretend  to  claim  the 
sober  belief  of  our  nineteenth-century  civilization.  To 
these,  then,  we  must  confine  our  attention. 

I.  The  Mosaic  Cos7nogony. 

Before  going  any  farther,  I  wish  to  make  two  or  three 
remarks  that  are  worth  careful  attention. 

(i)  The  account  of  creation  in  Genesis  holds  its  place 
in  the  popular  belief,  not  because  it  has  been  proved,  or 
is  capable  of  proof,  but  solely  because  of  its  supposed 
necessary  connection  with  the  truths  of  Christianity. 
This  is,  at  any  rate,  a  strange  and  questionable  basis  on 
n'hich  to  found  a  scientific  belief. 

(2)  It  is  an  old-world  traditional  belief,  not  for  the  first 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD. 


37 


time  revealed  to  Moses,  but  one  that  came  down  from  a 
time  long  before  the  foundation  of  the  Hebrew  nation. 

(3)  It  does  not  even  claim  to  be  the  result  of  a  study 
of  the  facts  that  it  proposes  to  explain.  No  such  study 
was  then  possible,  or  had  even  been  attempted ;  so  that 
Moses  is  not  telling  what  either  he  or  any  one  else  at  that 
time  had  any  way  of  knowing.  It  is  only  the  traditional 
belief  of  that  age. 

(4)  These  traditions  get  a  great  deal  of  hardly  de- 
served reverence  and  belief  from  the  fact  of  their  hisrh 
antiquity ;  just  as  a  man  is  proud  of  his  ancestry,  though 
the  roots  of  his  family-tree  run  down  into  outright  bar- 
barism. But,  if  you'll  think  of  it,  the  reverence  belongs 
here.  We  are  the  real  ancients.  The  present  is  the 
hoary  antiquity  of  the  earth.  'Tis  a  man's  old  age,  and 
not  his  childhood,  that  wears  wisdom  and  gray  hairs. 
This  story  of  Moses  is  one  of  the  fancies  of  the  world's 
childhood.  Never  was  civilization  so  old,  and  never  had 
it  such  stores  of  accumulated  knowledge,  as  now.  In  fact, 
never,  until  within  the  last  hundred  years,  has  the  world 
gathered  enough  about  the  facts  of  the  universe,  so  that 
mankind  was  competent  to  frame  a  reasonable  theory  of 
the  world  out  of  its  acquired  knowledge.  If,  then,  in  the 
history  of  humanity,  there  has  ever  been  a  time  when 
there  was  a  possibility  of  settling  this  question,  now  is 
that  time. 

(5)  The  Mosaic  cosmogony  has  no  scientific  claim  to 
be  called  a  theory  at  all ;  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  ex- 
plains nothing  whatever.     Its  very  claim  to  be  an  explana- 


38  V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

tion  is  merely  a  leap  into  the  incomprehensible.  It  simply 
says,  "  God  made  it."  But  that  does  not  at  all  explain 
the  method  of  creation,  —  how,  by  what  process,  and 
according  to  what  laws  and  forces,  things  have  come  to 
be  as  they  are.  I  do  not  explain  the  mystery  of  life  when 
I  tell  my  child  that  God  made  the  new  baby,  and  that  the 
angels  brought  it  down  to  me.  I  do  not  explain  a  tree, 
when  I  tell  a  child  that  God  made  it.  I  do  not  explain  a 
question  in  arithmetic,  when  I  tell  a  pupil  that  I  worked  it 
out,  and  that  so  and  so  is  the  answer.  But  all  these  are 
explanations  just  as  much  as  Genesis  explains  the  world. 
Men  seek  the  causes  and  the  methods  by  which  results 
have  been  produced.  The  solar  system  is  explained  by 
the  law  of  gravitation,  not  by  saying  God  or  the  angels 
make  the  planets  move. 

Thus  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  no  one  would  think 
of  resting  in  the  Mosaic  story,  were  it  not  supposed  to  be 
a  part  of  their  religion  to  do  so.  And  evolution  has  been/ 
opposed,  not  because  it  could  not  give  good  reasons  for 
itself,  but  because  it  has  been  regarded  as  hostile  to  the 
popular  religion. 

With  these  remarks,  then,  in  mind,  we  are  ready  to  look 
at  Genesis.  The  popular  belief  has  been  simply  this: 
God  had  lived  alone,  complete  and  happy  in  himself,  from 
all  eternity.  Suddenly,  for  no  conceivable  reason,  he 
concluded  to  create  the  world.  Previously,  however,  he 
had  made  the  angels,  that  they  might  serve  and  praise 
him  ;  though  what  service  or  praise  he  needed,  who  was 
complete  in  himself,  it  were  hard  to  tell.     If  he  had  any 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD. 


39 


motive  in  creating  the  world,  it  was  thought  to  be  that  he 
might  glorify  himself,  and  receive  the  admiration  of  his 
creatures.  The  chief  result  was  to  be,  that,  after  the  world 
had  passed  away,  his  goodness  in  saving  a  few,  and  his 
justice  in  damning  the  many,  might  be  seen  as  the  result 
of  his  scheme  of  redemption.  When,  then,  he  was  ready, 
by  the  word  of  command,  he  created  matter  out  of  nothing, 
and  of  this  matter  built  the  world.  This  world,  a  flat 
surface,  he  anchored  in  the  midst  of  space,  "setting  k 
fast  forever,  so  that  it  could  not  be  moved."  Then  he 
elaborated  the  solid  concave  arch  of  the  firmament,  and 
placed  it  like  a  dome  over  the  earth.  In  this  he  arranged 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  to  divide  the  seasons,  the  days, 
and  the  nights,  and  to  give  light  to  this  earth.  He  sepa 
rated  the  waters,  making  the  oceans  of  that  which  he 
left  on  earth  •  and  in  his  storehouses  "  above  the  firma- 
ment," he  treasured  up  the  rains  to  water  the  earth,  which 
watering  was  to  be  done  by  opening  the  windows  of  the 
sky,  and  letting  the  water  through.  Then  he  made  the 
different  forms  of  life,  creating  fishes  and  reptiles,  and 
birds  and  animals,  out  of  the  dust.  When  this  is  done,  it 
occurs  to  the  Deity  that  none  of  these  creatures  can  think 
of  or  praise  him  :  so  he  consults,  and  concludes  to  make 
man  in  his  own  image.  He  forms  Adam  out  of  the  dust, 
and  then  breathes  in  his  nostrils,  and  he  becomes  alive. 
Then,  seeing  that  he  is  lonesome,  he  concludes  to  make  a 
woman  to  keep  him  company.  So  he  puts  him  to  sleep, 
takes  out  one  of  his  ribs, — which,  strange  to  say,  has 
never  been  missed, — and   from   it  constructs    Eve.     All 


40  *  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

this  has  taken  him  six  days.  He  is  now  tired,  and  gives 
one  day  to  rest.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  sabbath.  If  by 
resting  is  meant  letting  creation  alone,  we  should  suppose 
it  might  have  fallen  into  disorder  during  the  neglect. 
But  if  it  means  simply  ceasing  to  create,  then  he  has  been 
resting  ever  since,  on  this  theory ;  and  it  is  hard  to  see 
why  it  is  stated  that  he  took  only  one  day.  But  we  know 
now  that  the  process  of  creation  has  never  ceased :  so 
that  we  can  get  no  meaning  out  of  it  at  all.  Even  Jesus 
declared  that  his  Father  was  working  still. 

Now,  it  is  not  my  intention  to  insult  your  intelligence 
by  proving  to  you  that  this  is  not  true.     The  conception 
of  God  and  of  his  methods  is  such  as  the  world's  child- 
hood might  ignorantly  imagine  ;   but  no  free  intellect  of 
the  present  age  cares  even  to  refute  it.     Only  to  look  at  it  * 
is  sufficient  refutation.      Genesis   contains   contradictory*/ 
accounts  even  of  the  original  creation;   and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  was  not  such  as  to  prevent 
the   most   palpable   mistakes   being  made   in  describing  / 
natural  things. 

We  may  now  pass  on  to  consider, 

II.   The  Theory  of  Evolution. 

It  would  transcend  our  limits  to  attempt  even  an  out- 
line of  the  proofs  of  this  theory.  These  are  to  be  found 
in  the  works  of  the  masters  of  science,  specially  prepared 
for  that  purpose.  I  must,  therefore,  content  myself  with 
remarking  some  of  the  surface  probabilities,  and  then 
placing  the  theory  itself  alongside  the  Mosaic,  that  you 
may  compare  them. 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD.  41 

(1)  It  is  a  fact  that  ought  to  make  men  stop  and  think, 
before  rejecting  it,  that  almost  every  trained  scientific 
man  living,  who  is  competent  to  give  a  judgment  on  the 
question,  is  a  believer  in  evolution.  If  all  the  skilful 
doctors  were  agreed  about  a  certain  disease,  it  would 
hardly  be  modest  for  us  to  say  they  were  wrong.  When 
all  the  generals  are  at  one  about  a  military  question, 
the  probabilities  are  decidedly  their  way.  When  all  the 
architects  agree  about  a  building,  and  when  all  the  paint- 
ers unite  in  defence  of  a  question  in  art,  outsiders  should 
at  least  hesitate.  Nearly  all  the  present  opposition  tc 
evolution  comes  from  theology ;  but  theology  does  not 
happen  to  know  any  thing  about  it.  As  though  I  should 
attempt  to  settle  a  disputed  point  in  music  by  the  sense  of 
smell,  or  a  case  of  color  (red  or  white)  by  hearing !  The 
men  who  oppose  evolution  may  be  generally  divided  into 
two  classes,  —  those  actuated  by  theological  prejudice,  and 
those  who  know  nothing  about  it. 

(2)  The  theory  of  evolution  is  constructed  out  of  the 
observed  and  accumulated  facts  of  the  universe  :  it  is  not 
guess-work.  The  men  who  have  elaborated  this  answer 
to  the  old  question,  How  did  things  come  to  be  as  they 
are  ?  are  men  who  have  gone  to  the  facts  themselves,  and 
asked  the  question.  They  went  to  the  earth  and  studied 
it,  and  so  developed  the  science  of  geology  :  they  looked 
at  the  stars  to  see  how  they  moved,  and  so  made  astrono- 
my :  they  studied  animals  to  see  how  they  grew,  and  so 
made  zoology  :  they  studied  man,  and  so  made  physiology 
and  anttropology.     If  anybody,   then,   in  the  world,  has 


42V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

any  right  to  an  opinion  on  the  subject,  it  is  those  who 
have  looked  at  the  facts  to  find  out  about  them.  And 
it  is  simply  absurd  to  see  people  offer  an  opinion,  who 
have  no  better  stuff  than  ignorance  or  prejudice  to  make 
it  out  of. 

(3)  It  stands  the  very  highest  test  of  a  good  theory; 
that  is,  it  takes  into  itself,  accounts  for,  and  adjusts,  al- 
most every  known  fact ;  while  there  is  not  one  single  fact 
known  that  makes  it  unreasonable  for  a  man  to  be  an 
evolutionist. 

Now,  what  is  the  theory  ?  Simply  this :  that  theV 
whole  universe,  suns,  planets,  moons,  our  earth,  and  every 
form  of  life  upon  it,  vegetable  and  animal,  up  to  man, 
together  with  all  our  civilization,  has  developed  from  a 
primitive  fire-mist  or  nebula?  that  once  filled  all  the  space 
now  occupied  by  the  worlds  ;  and  that  this  development 
has  been  according  to  laws  and  methods  and  forces  still 
active,  and  working  about  us  to-day.  It  calls  in  no  un- 
known agency.  It  does  not  offer  to  explain  a  natural  fact 
by  a  miracle  which  only  deepens  the  mystery  it  attempts  to 
solve.  It  says,  "  I  accept  and  ask  for  only  the  forces  that/ 
are  going  on  right  before  my  eyes,  and  with  these  I  will 
explain  the  visible  universe."  Certainly  a  magnificent 
pretension,  and,  if  accomplished,  a  magnificent  achieve- 
ment, of  the  mind  of  man. 

Look  at  the  theory  a  little  more  in  detail.  Evolution 
teaches  that  the  space  now  occupied  by  suns  and  planets 
was  once  filled  with  a  fire-mist,  or  flaming  gas.  This 
mist,  or  gas,  by  the  process  of  cooling  and  condensation, 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD.  43 

and  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  motion  naturally  set 
up  in  it,  in  the  course  of  ages  was  solidified  into  the  stars 
and  worlds,  taking  on  gradually  their  present  motions, 
shapes,  and  conditions.  This  is  the  famous  "nebular 
hypothesis."  In  favor  of  this  theory  is  the  fact  that  the 
earth  is  now  in  precisely  the  condition  we  should  expect  it 
to  be,  on  this  supposition.  The  moon,  being  smaller  than 
the  earth,  has  now  become  cold  and  dead.  Jupiter  and 
Saturn,  being  larger,  are  still  hot,  —  halfway  between  the 
sun's  flaming  condition  and  the  earth's  habitable  one. 
And  then  all  through  the  sky  are  clouds  of  nebulas,  still  in 
the  condition  of  flaming  gas,  whirling,  and  assuming  just 
such  shapes  as  the  evolution  theory  alone  can  explain. 
The  theory  further  teaches,  that,  when  the  cooling  earth 
had  come  into  such  a  condition  that  there  were  land  and 
water  and  an  atmosphere,  then  life  appeared.  But  how  ? 
By  any  special  act  of  creation  ?  No.  It  introduces  no 
new  or  unknown  force,  and  calls  for  no  miracle.  Science 
discovers  no  impassable  gulf  between  what  we  ignorantly 
call  dead  matter,  and  that  which  is  alive.  It  does  not 
believe  any  matter  is  dead  :  so  it  finds  in  it  "  the  prom- 
ise and  potency  of  every  form  of  life."  It  has  discovered 
a  little  viscous  globule,  or  cell,  made  up  chiefly  of  nitrogen 
and  albumen.  It  is  a  chemical  compound,  the  coming 
into  existence  of  which  is  no  more  wonderful  than  the 
formation  of  a  crystal,  and  calls  no  more  urgently  for  a 
miracle  than  a  crystal  does.  This  little  mass,  or  cell,  is 
not  only  the  lowest  and  most  original  form  of  life,  but  it  is 
the  basis  of  every  form.     There  is  no  single  form  of  life 


44  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

on  the  globe,  from  the  moss  on  a  stone  up  to  the  brain  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  that  is  not  a  more  or  less  complex  com- 
pound or  combination  of  this  primary,  tiny  cell ;  and  there 
is  no  stage  in  the  process  of  development,  where  ascer- 
tained laws  and  forces  are  not  competent  to  produce  the 
results.  There  is  no  barrier  between  the  vegetable  and 
animal  kingdom.  No  naturalist  living  can  tell  where  the 
one  leaves  off,  and  the  other  begins,  so  insensibly  do  they 
merge  into  each  other,  like  day  passing  through  twilight 
into  night.  Neither  is  there  any  barrier  between  species, 
either  of  plants  or  animals.  This  point  is  now  settled. 
Evolution  also  (what  no  other  theory  does)  explains  the 
distribution  of  plants  and  animals  over  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  It  explains  the  present  condition  of  the  races 
of  mankind,  —  the  progress  of  some,  the  stagnation  of 
others,  and  the  cases  of  gradual  decay  and  dying-out.  It 
explains  social,  political,  and  religious  movements  and 
changes,  rises  and  falls.  It  is  gradually  proving  its  ca- 
pacity to  grapple  with  and  solve  the  great  enigmas  and 
questions  of  the  ages.  And  when  generally  understood 
and  accepted,  it  will  modify  and  direct  all  the  forces  and 
movements  of  the  modern  world. 

From  the  primeval  fire-mist,  then,  until  to-day,  the 
world  has  grown,  without  any  necessity  for,  or  help  from, 
special  creations,  miracles,  or  any  other  forces  than  those 
known  and  recognized  as  at  work  right  around  us.  It  has 
taken  millions  of  years  to  do  this ;  but  what  are  they  in 
eternity  ?  There  have  been  no  cataclysms,  nor  breaks,  nor 
leaps.     The  sun  has  shone,  the  rain  has  fallen,  the  winds 


-  / 

THE   THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD.  45 


have  blown,  the  rivers  have  run,  the  oceans  have  worn  the 
shores,  the  continents  have  risen  and  sunk,  just  as  they 
are  doing  now  ;  and  all  these  things  have  come  to  pass. 

But  some  one  will  say,  "This  is  blank  and  outright 
atheism.  You  have  left  God  entirely  out  of  the  question. 
Where  has  he  been,  and  what  has  he  been  doing,  all  these 
millions  of  years  ?  From  the  fire-mist  until  to-day,  all  has\ 
gone  along  on  purely  natural  principles,  and  by  natural 
laws,  you  say  ? "  Yes,  that  is  just  what  evolution  says. 
But,  before  we  call  it  atheism,  let  me  ask  you  a  question/ 
Here  is  a  century-old  oak-tree.  The  acorn  from  which  it 
sprung  was  the  natural  product  of  some  other  oak.  It 
fell  to  the  earth,  and  the  young  oak  sprouted.  From 
that  day  to  this,  —  a  hundred  years,  — the  oak  has  simply 
grown  by  natural  law.  You  want  no  miracle  to  explain 
it.  Is  your  theory  of  the  oak,  then,  atheistic  ?  Is  it  any 
less  strange  that  the  oak  should  grow  than  that  thou- 
sands of  other  oaks,  and  other  forms  of  life,  should  do  the 
same  ?  When  a  child  is  born,  it  grows,  you  say,  by  natu- 
ral law.  Is  it  any  more  wonderful  that  it  should  be  born 
bv  natural  law?  and  that  all  life  should  be  born,  and 
should  develop,  by  natural  law  ?  You  are  just  as  atheistic 
to  say  that  a  tree  or  a  child  grows  by  natural  law,  as  evo- 
lution is,  when  it  says  the  world  did  the  same.  Suppose 
science  should  put  its  God  back  in  the  past  some  millions 
of  ages,  while  Moses  puts  his  back  only  six  thousand 
years,  would  the  difference  in  time  make  one  theory  more 
atheistic  than  the  other  ?  But  I  should  call  pushing  him 
back  six  thousand  years,  or  a  hundred  million  years,  or 


^ — 

46  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

five  minutes,  even,  more  atheistic  than  I  should  like  to 
believe.     So  I  would  do  neither  the  one  nor  the  other. 
What  if  we  see  the  life  and  power  and  movement  of  God^ 
in   the  fire-mist,  in   all  the  growing  worlds,  in  the  first 
appearance  of    life    on    the    planet,    in  the   forms    that 
climb  up  through  all  grades  to  man  ?     What  if  we  see  him/ 
in  the  dust  of  the  street,  in  the  grasses  and  flowers,  in  the 
clouds  and  the  light,  in  the  ocean  and  the  storms,  in  the 
trees    and  the   birds,   in   the    animal,   lifting   up  through 
countless  forms  to  humanity  ?     What  if  we  see  him  in  the 
family,  in  society,  in  the  state,  in  all  religions,  up  to  the 
highest  outflowerings  of  Christianity?     What  if  we   see 
him  in  art,  literature,  and  science  ?     What  if  we  make  the 
whole  world  his   temple,  and  all  life  a  worship  ?     All  this^ 
we  may  not  only  do  in  evolution,  but  evolution  helps  us 
do  it.     I  shall  be  greatly  mistaken,  if  the  radicalism  ofy 
evolution  does  not  prove  to  be  the  grandest  of  all  conser- 
vatism in  society  and  politics  not  only,  but  in  religion  as 
well.     It  will  turn  out  to  be  the  most  theistic  of  all  the-^\ 
isms.      It  will  give  us  the  grandest  conception  of   God 
that  the  world  has  ever  known.     It  is  inconsistent  with 
"orthodoxy,"  but  not  with  religion.     It  is  charged  by  the 
thoughtless  with  being  materialistic ;  but  in  reality  it  is 
any  thing  else.     It  so  changes  our  conception  of  matter 
as  utterly  to  destroy  the  old  "materialism."     It  not  only* 
does  not  touch  any  one  of  the  essential  elements  of  true 
religion,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  gives  a  firm  and  broad 
foundation  on  which  to  establish  it  beyond  the  possibility 
of  overthrow.    To  illustrate  this  will  be  the  work  of  futurey 
treatment  of  the  special  topics. 


THE    THEORY  OF  THE    WORLD.  47 

It  only  remains  for  me  now  to  suggest  a  comparison 
as  to  grandeur  and  divinity  between  the  two  theories  of 
creation.  So  many  thoughtless  sneers  have  been  flung  at 
the  theory  that  dared  talk  of  man's  relationship  to  the 
ape,  that  a  comparison  like  this  may  help  change  the  sneer 
to  admiration. 

We  marvel  at  Watt,  the  first  constructor  of  a  steam- 
engine  ;  but  it  has  taken  many  a  brain  beside  his  to 
bring  it  to  its  present  perfection.  What  if  he  had  been 
able  to  build  it  on  such  a  plan,  and  put  into  it  such  a 
generative  force,  that  it  should  go  on,  through  long  inter- 
vals of  time,  developing  from  itself  improvements  on 
itself,  until  it  had  become  adapted  to  all  the  needs  of 
man  ?  It  should  fit  itself  for  rails ;  it  should  grow  into 
adaptation  for  country  roads  and  city  streets ;  it  should 
swim  the  water,  and  fly  the  air ;  it  should  shape  itself  to 
all  elements  and  uses  that  could  make  it  available  for  the 
service  of  man.  Suppose  that  all  this  should  develop 
from  the  first  simple  engine  that  Watt  constructed  ;  and 
should  do  it  by  virtue  of  power  that  Watt  himself  im- 
planted in  it  ?  The  simple  thought  of  such  a  mechanism 
makes  us  feel  how  superhuman  it  would  be,  and  how 
worthy  of  divinity.  Is  it  not  infinitely  more  than  the 
separate  construction  of  each  separate  improvement  ? 
And  yet  this  supposition  is  simplicity  and  ease  itself, 
compared  with  the  grand  magnificence  of  creation  after 
the  Darwinian  idea.  Who  can  pick  an  acorn  from  the 
ground,  and,  looking  up  to  the  tree  from  which  it  has 
fallen,  try  to  conceive  all  the  grand  and  century-grown 


48  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

beauty  and  power  of  the  oak  as  contained  in  the  tiny 
cone  in  his  hand,  and  not  feel  overwhelmed  by  the  might 
and  the  mystery  of  the  works  of  God  ?  How  unutterably 
grander  is  the  thought  that  the  world-wide  banyan-tree  of 
life,  with  all  its  million-times-multiplied  variety  of  form 
and  function,  and  beauty  and  power,  standing  with  its 
roots  in  the  dust,  and  with  its  top  "  commercing  with  the 
skies,"  and  bearing  on  its  upper  boughs  the  eternal  light 
of  God's  spiritual  glory,  is  all  the  godlike  growth  of  one 
little  seed  in  whkh  the  divine  finger  planted  such  fructify- 
ing force  1 


III. 


THE  GOD  OF  EVOLUTION. 

The  manifestation  of  the  life  and  power  of  the  universe 
has  been  a  gradual  evolution  ;  that  is,  a  continuous  un- 
folding, a  growing  revelation,  the  less  becoming  more,  the 
simple  becoming  complex,  through  an  apparently  infinite 
development  and  specialization.  The  whole  is  recapitu- 
lated in  every  flower  that  blooms.  The  rose  is  first  a 
seed  ;  it  pushes  up  through  the  soil,  then  branches,  sends 
out  bud  and  leaf,  bursts  into  beauty  and  fragrance  of 
flower,  and  then  develops  from  its  loveliness  the  germ  of 
something  more  to  come.  So  of  the  mountain-pine,  that 
has  stood  on  its  watch-tower  overlooking  whole  centuries 
of  human  history.  Its  potential  life  was  once  wrapped 
up  in  one  little  seed,  sheltered  in  the  protecting  grasp  of  a 
tiny  cone  that  one  might  hold  in  his  hand.  The  might 
and  the  marvel  of  this  life  are  not  to  be  seen  by  simply 
looking  at  seed  or  cone,  but  by  studying  the  processes 
and  results  of  the  wondrous  unfolding,  or  evolution. 

The  universe,  so  far  as  at  present  we  are  able  to  trace, 
was  once  contained  in  the  world-seed  of  the  fire-mist,  or 

4  49 


50  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

primitive  nebula.  We  might  guess  all  sorts  of  things,  as 
to  where  the  fire-mist  came  from,  and  how  it  came  :  but 
science  means  knowledge ;  and  it  is  my  purpose,  so  far  as 
possible,  to  keep  myself  strictly  to  what  is  known.  The- 
ology assumes  God,  and  thinks  thus  to  escape  all  diffi- 
culties. But  should  science  take  to  assuming,  it  has  the 
same  right  to  declare  that  the  fire-mist  made  itself,  or  that 
it  always  existed,  as  theology  has  to  say  that  God  made 
himself,  or  always  existed.  I  am  willing  frankly  to  admit 
that  it  is  just  as  easy  to  think  that  the  universe  always 
existed,  or  that  it  made  itself,  as  it  is  to  think  that  God 
always  existed,  or  made  himself.  It  is  simply  impossible 
to  imagine  or  comprehend  either  the  one  or  the  other.  As, 
then,  I  wish  to  speak  to  and  command  a  respectful  hear- 
ing from  those  who  are  not  content  to  rest  in  tradition  or 
assumption,  but  who  wish  to  find  out  if  religion  has  any 
basis  of  knowledge  to  stand  on,  I  propose  to  avoid  assum- 
ing any  thing,  even  the  existence  of  God.  I  wish  to  find 
him,  if  I  can ;  and  then  there  will  be  no  need  of  assump- 
tion. 

We  begin,  then,  with  the  fire-mist,  because  that  is  the 
first  thing  we  know.  This  fire-mist,  by  cooling  and  con- 
densing, became  suns  and  planets  and  worlds,  —  the  won- 
drous heavens  of  our  present  telescopic  astronomy.  Our 
system  was  slowly  born.  The  sun,  so  large  that  it  has 
not  yet  cooled,  is  the  source  of  our  life  and  light  and  heat. 
The  moon,  so  small  that  it  is  already  cold  and  dead, 
exists  now  only  for  the  sake  of  the  earth.  Other  mem- 
bers of  the  system  are  still  half-sun  and  half-planet,  not 


THE   GOD    OF  EVOLUTION. 


5* 


yet  ready  for  the  abode  of  life.  When  it  was  ready, 
the  lowest  forms  of  life,  having  nothing  of  limbs,  or  bone, 
or  brain,  —  no  organization,  —  appeared  in  the  primeval 
oceans  of  the  world.  Then  there  were  long  ages,  during 
which  the  highest  type  of  life  on  the  earth  were  fishes. 
The  finny  vikings  were  the  lords  and  the  nobility  of 
the  time.  Then  these  climbed  up  into  the  higher  form 
of  reptiles.  Huge  creatures,  half  living  in  the  seas,  half 
on  the  land,  or  with  great  dragon-wings  flying  heavily 
through  the  air,  now  reigned  over  the  earth  for  thousands 
of  years.  Then  came  the  birds  ;  and  for  centuries  they 
were  the  highest  form  of  life  upon  the  globe.  Next  ani- 
mal shapes  appeared,  climbing  up  from  the  lowest  types 
and  simplest  forms,  until  the  great  tree  of  life  flowered 
out  into  humanity.  But  the  first  being  that  could  be 
properly  called  human  was,  as  compared  with  later  devel- 
opments, no  more  than  the  insignificant  blossom  of  a 
wayside  weed  when  placed  beside  the  perfumed  glory  of 
the  rose,  or  the  gorgeous  tropical  outflowering  of  the 
century-plant.  The  gulf  that  separates  the  highest  ani- 
mals from  the  lowest  men  is  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  wider  differences  that  divide  between  those  lowest 
men  and  the  Dantes,  the  Shaksperes,  and  the  Newtons 
of  the  race.  And  above  these  the  moral  grandeur  of  one 
like  Jesus  towers  like  a  mountain,  that,  above  all  its  range, 
looks  down  on  its  fellows  from  the  clouds. 

Thus  the  panorama  of  creation  has  unfolded.  The 
first  scene  was  the  fire-mist :  the  last  that  we  have  looked 
on  is  the  present  hour,  including  the  highest  social,  politi- 


52  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

cal,  and  religious  life  and  aspirations  of  the  race.  And 
the  end  is  not  yet :  the  creation  is  not  still :  the  scene  is 
moving  and  unfolding  to-day.  And  if  we  may  guess  the 
future  from  the  past,  the  imagination  must  confess  that  it 
has  no  colors  bright  and  grand  enough  to  paint  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  ages  to  come. 

You  can  now  see  that  the  manifestation  of  the  life  and 
force  of  the  universe  has  been  a  gradual  evolution.  And 
if,  at  any  particular  stage  of  the  progress,  there  had  been 
some  person  present  trying  to  find  out  what  the  life  was 
by  looking  at  "  the  things  made,"  of  course  he  would  have 
had  to  make  his  idea  of  this  life,  or  God  (if  he  gave  it  that 
name),  out  of  the  then  condition  of  things.  His  god 
would  have  been  on  the  level  of  the  fire-mist  or  the  fishes, 
like  the  Philistines'  Dagon  \  or  of  the  reptiles,  like  the 
deities  of  the  serpent-worshippers  ;  or  of  the  animals,  like 
the  sacred  bull  of  Egypt ;  or  simply  a  physical  man,  like 
the  Roman  Hercules  or  Jupiter,  or  the  early  Hebrew 
Jehovah  (for  Jehovah  at  first  was  only  a  gigantic  man)  : 
as  David  says,  "  Jehovah  is  a  man  of  war."  As  such  he 
appears  all  through  Genesis. 

This  manifestation  of  the  life  of  things  has  thus  been 
a  gradual  and  growing  one.  And  it  is  curious  and  in- 
structive to  notice  that  the  idea  of  God  in  the  human 
mind  has  recapitulated,  or  lived  over  again,  this  evolution 
of  the  facts  of  the  world.  Have  you  ever  thought  over 
the  first  conceptions  that  men  had  of  God,  and  how  they 
have  developed  to  what  we  think  and  believe  to-day  ? 
The  first  men  of   the  world,  of   course,  had  no  fire,  no 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION. 


53 


houses,  and  no  weapons  with  which  to  defend  their  lives, 
or  to  hunt  for  food.  The  most  important  invention  of  the 
world  was  discovered  when  some  man  first  made  a  spear 
out  of  a  stick.  Defenceless  as  they  were  in  the  midst  of 
hunger  and  cold  and  storm  and  wild  beasts,  the  pre- 
dominant motive  and  feeling  of  the  time  must  have  been 
fear;  and  from  this  would  naturally  develop  their  first 
religion.  As  they  saw  each  other  and  the  wild  animals 
moving  about,  and  crying,  and  making  noises,  and  saw 
that  they  were  alive,  they,  like  the  child-men  they  were, 
thought  that  every  thing  that  moved,  or  made  a  noise, 
was  also  alive.  And  as  the  wild  beasts  hurt  and  killed 
them,  when  they  got  a  chance,  and  as  the  storms  and  cold 
hurt  and  killed  them,  their  most  pressing  thought  was 
one  of  safety.  They  saw  the  trees  move  when  the  wind 
blew ;  they  felt  the  motion  and  power  of  the  wind  that 
they  could  not  see ;  they  saw  the  waters  run ;  they  saw 
the  lightning  flash,  and  twist  itself  like  a  huge  serpent 
in  the  clouds  ;  they  saw  the  clouds  go  across  the  sky,  and 
the  sun  and  moon  rise  and  set ;  and  as  they  saw  all 
these  things  moving  in  this  way,  they  thought  they  were 
living  beings,  who  might  hurt  them  if  they  were  angry,  or 
might  help  them,  if  they  chose.  Thus  they  turned  all 
these  things  into  gods.  Then  they  began  to  pray  to 
them,  and  to  give,  or  offer,  them  things  they  thought  they 
would  like,  and  to  try  to  find  out  how  they  might  influ- 
ence them  to  do  what  they  desired.  This  was  the  original 
polytheism,  or,  in  its  lowest  manifestation,  fetichism. 
But  after  a  good  many  ages,  some  of  the  races  of  men 


54  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

grew  wiser.  They  found  out  that  stones  and  trees  and 
rivers  and  clouds  and  the  sun  were  not  gods.  They 
learned  that  praying  to  them  did  no  good.  They  dis- 
covered that,  instead  of  moving  about  as  they  liked,  they 
were  governed  by  some  higher  power,  and  moved  accord- 
ins  to  certain  definite  laws.  Should  a  barbarian  look  at 
a  complicated  piece  of  machinery,  he  would  be  likely  to 
think,  at  first,  that  every  several  wheel  and  lever  and 
piston  and  band  was  going  all  by  itself.  But  study  would 
teach  him  that  a  central  force  moved  it  all  according  to 
the  laws  of  its  construction.  Something  like  this  men 
found  out  about  the  world.  They  learned  that  there  was 
somewhere  a  hidden  mainspring  that  controlled  the  whole 
life  and  movement  of  the  universe,  and  so  gave  unity  to 
it  all.     This  was  monotheism. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  the  first  development  of  mono- 
theism only  thought  of  God  as  a  gigantic  and  superhuman 
man.  The  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament  makes  himself 
a  local  habitation,  appears  in  the  temple,  walks  and  talks, 
and  thinks  and  plans,  loves  and  hates,  gets  angry,  takes 
vengeance,  and  changes  his  mind,  very  much  after  the 
fashion  of  an  Oriental  despot.  This  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at ;  for  as  water  cannot  rise  above  its  source,  so 
the  human  mind  cannot  think  of  God  as  being  any  thing 
higher  than  its  highest  and  best  conception  of  what  is 
worthy  of  divinity.  Humanity  cannot  escape  itself ;  and 
so  its  thought  of  God  is  always  the  best  it  is  capable  of 
thinking  at  the  time.  As  man  grows  and  develops,  so 
does  his  idea  of  divinity.     The  divine  does  not  change ; 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  55 

but  as  you  can  put  only  twelve  quarts  of  the  Atlantic  in 
a  twelve-quart  pail,  so  in  a  finite  brain  you  can  put  only  so 
much  of  the  Infinite  as  the  finite  can  contain.  As  the 
thought  of  man  gets  larger,  its  contents  increase. 

The  next  grand  step  in  the  development  of  monotheism 
is  when  Jesus  says,  "  God  is  a  spirit,"  "The  hour  cometh 
when  ye  shall  neither  in  this  mountain  [Gerizim],  nor  yet 
at  Jerusalem,  worship  the  Father."  Thus,  to  the  highest 
thought  of  men,  God  has  become  a  power,  whose  centre  is 
everywhere,  and  his  circumference  nowhere. 

This  developing  idea  of  God  is  a  fact  of  human  experi- 
ence. But  now  the  question  meets  us,  Is  this  idea  any 
thing  more  than  an  idea  ?  Has  it  any  real  validity,  or 
right  to  exist  ?  Do  we  know  that  there  is  any  God  corre- 
sponding to  the  idea  ?  Knowledge  is  popularly  supposed 
to  have  for  its  province  all  the  regions  of  the  tangible  and 
definite  ;  while  the  indefinite,  and  the  intangible,  and  the 
unseen,  are  turned  over  to  faith  and  imagination.  And 
a  great  many  hard-headed  people  are  beginning  to  think 
that  what  they  cannot  see  and  feel  is  of  no  practical 
consequence.  Even  Tennyson,  speaking  of  religion,  per- 
mits himself  to  write  :  — 

"  We  have  but  faith  :  we  cannot  know ; 
For  knowledge  is  of  things  we  see." 

We  are  accustomed  to  say,  "  I  know  the  earth.  I  know 
a  crystal.  I  know  my  friend."  But  when  we  come  to 
matters  of  religion,  ws  say,  "  I  hope,  or  I  believe,  that 
God  exists." 


56  i  »  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Now,  I  protest  against  this  use  of  language,  as  not 
being  true  to  the  reality  of  things.  I  know  it  will  be 
regarded  at  first,  and  by  many,  as  daring  and  presump- 
tuous ;  but  I  propose  to  make  and  substantiate  the  claim 
that  the  God  of  evolution,  the  hidden  life  and  secret  forced 
of  this  unfolding  universe  of  ours,  may  be  just  as  truly 
and  really  known  as  a  grass-blade,  a  star,  or  your  next- 
door  neighbor.  Please  take  notice  that  I  do  not  say  a.& 
well  known,  as  completely  known,  but  known  as  truly  and' 
really,  as  far  as  the  knowledge  goes.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  universe  that  is  completely  known.  For  the  universe, 
like  the  seamless  garment  of  Jesus,  is  all  of  one  piece : 
every  thread  runs  through  it  all ;  so  that  to  trace  one 
thread  completely  is  to  unravel  the  whole  mystery.  As 
Tennyson  says  with  such  force  and  beauty,  — 

"  Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies, 
Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 
Little  flower  ;  but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

To  justify  this  statement,  I  must  ask  you  to  consider, 
for  a  moment,  what  it  is  that  you  know  about  any  thing. 
Is  it  the  thing  or  the  person  in  itself,  or  manifestations  of 
the  thing  or  person  ?  In  what  sense  do  you  know  youA 
next-door  neighbor  ?  You  know  the  general  size  and  fea-/ 
tures  of  his  person,  the  color  of  his  hair  and  eyes,  his  gait 
and  style  of  movement,  the  clothes  he  ordinarily  wears. 
You  know  the  tone  of  his  voice,  something  of  his  past 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  57" 

experience  and  present  character,  and,  in  some  general 
way,  his  intellectual  and  moral  attainments;  that  is,  you'Jr 
know   certain  external  manifestations  of    this  mysterious 
personality  you  call  neighbor  and  friend.     And  no  matter 
how  intimate  you  may  be,  the  general  fact  is  not  changed^ 
In  the  secret  recesses  of  his  life,  there  is  a  whole  unvisited 
world.     There  are  oceans  on  which  you  have  never  sailed, 
continents  you  have  never  looked  upon,  and  skies  whose   , 
stars  have  never  caught  your  eye.     In  short,  you  know\ 
nothing  about  the  essential  personality  of  this  mysterious 
being  you  call   friend.     You  simply  know  certain  outer 
manifestations  of  the  inner  life:     And  the  same  is  true  of/ 
a  flower,  of  a  piano,  or  of  a  chair,  just  as  really  as  it  is  of 
the  sun,  or  of  God.     All  these  have  certain  qualities  that 
manifest  themselves  to  your  senses.     You  have  five  senses 
to  receive  the  manifestations.     But  that  your  five  senses 
and  these  manifestations  are  all  there  is,  is  the  boldest  of 
all  assumptions.      As  reasonably  might  a  deaf  and  blind 
mute  assert  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  world  but  hard- 
ness and  shape,  because  these  were  all  he  could  feel. 

"  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 

We  have  a  fairly  accurate  knowledge  of  manifestations. 
It  is  not  perfect;  for  our  senses  sometimes  make  -  mis- 
takes. But  one  thing  more  certain  than  any  other  item 
of  our  knowledge  is,  that  beneath  all  manifestations  is  a 
life  and  a  force  of  which  the  manifestations  are  the  out- 
come.    I   may  mistake  as  to  some  special  fact  about  my 


58  V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

friend ;  but  that  there  is  a  personal,  conscious  life  that  I 
call  my  friend  is  matter  of  absolute  certainty.  I  may  be\ 
color-blind,  and  so  mistake  the  red  or  the  purple  of  a 
rose ;  but  that  there  is  something  that  manifests  itself  to 
me  as  a  rose,  this  I  absolutely  know.  And  so  the  one\ 
thing  that  we  know  about  the  universe  more  certainly 
than  we  know  any  thing  else  is,  that,  underneath  all  the 
forms  and  movements  and  manifestations,  there  is  a  life, 
or  a  force,  that  manifests  itself  as  form  and  movement, 
And  as  our  knowledge  of  a  grass-blade  or  a  friend  is 
only  a  series  of  facts  of  manifestation,  so  we  have  con- 
cerning God  precisely  the  same  means  of  knowledge.^* 
Let  us  go  on,  then,  to  indicate  the  outlines  of  what  we 
can  know  about  the  life  and  force  of  the  universe  that 
theology  calls  God,  and  that  science  may  call  "  nature  " 
or  "law,"  if  it  chooses,  since  the  name,  whatever  it  be, 
cannot  change  the  essential  reality. 

(i)  We  have  that  whole  class  of  manifestations,  which, 
taken  together,  make  up  the  material  universe.  And 
what  can  we  spell  out  of  these  wondrous  hieroglyphs  ? 
They  certify,  at  the  outset,  that  this  which  religion  calls 
God,  and  which  science  names  force,  or  power,  or  nature, 
really  exists.  The  universe  is,  and  therefore  that  which 
the  universe  manifests  is.  Next,  here  is  everywhere 
the  movement  of  life ;  and  beyond  motion  there  is  order, 
—  an  order  that  speaks  of  a  cosmos,  or  system.  I  do  not 
care  to  assert  that  this  order  demonstrates  a  designing 
mind.  It  is  sufficient  for  my  purpose,  at  this  stage  of  my 
argument,  to  say  that  this  order  is  such  an  one  as  agrees 


THE  GOD  OF  EVOLUTION.  59^ 

with  the  highest  development  of  what  we  call  intellect; 
so  that,  looking  up  to  it  from  our  human  plane,  it  is 
proper  for  us  to  call  it  an  intellectual  order.  And,  further 
still,  we  see  everywhere,  on  leaf  and  flower,  on  sunlit 
cloud,  on  curl  of  ocean  surf,  in  mountain  outline,  and  in 
wildwood  glade,  an  inexpressible  beauty  that  becomes 
the  inspiration  of  artist  and  of  poet. 

Here,  then,  in  inanimate  nature,  we  see  and  know  exist-X 
ence,  motion,  order,  and  beauty,  and  know  them  as  the 
outcome,  as  the  real  and  true  manifestation,  of  the  inscru- 
table and  ineffable  life  of  the  universe.     So  far  as  they 
go,   they   are   reliable   and  adequate    revelations   of   they 
Unknowable  One. 

(2)  As  our  next  step  up  and  on,  let  us  glance  at  the 
lesson  of  human  history.  I  do  not  here  enter  into  any 
analysis  of  human  nature,  but  wish  simply  to  ask  your 
attention  to  the  way  in  which  the  universe  has  dealt  with 
the  race,  taken  in  the  mass.  What  is  the  lesson  of  the 
drift  of  our  human  destiny,  taking  the  world  as  a  whole  ? 
It  is  twofold,  and  may  be  indicated  by  the  two  words, 
"progress  "  and  "righteousness."  From  the  lowest  forms 
of  primeval  life  up  to  the  topmost  height  of  our  modern 
civilization,  there  is  evident  a  force  of  uplifting  and  on- 
looking. 

"  Every  clod  feels  a  stir  of  might, 

An  instinct  within  it  that  reaches  and  towers, 
And,  groping  blindly  above  it  for  light, 
Climbs  to  a  soul  in  grass  and  flowers." 

What   the   poet   here   sings    of    the    lower  life  of  the 


6o  "  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


spring  may  be   taken  as  typical  of  the  grand  truth  that 
binds  together  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  creation. 

And  not  only  do  we  see  progress  along  certain  definite 
lines  of  law  that  suggest  the  Tightness  of  this  life-force 
of  the  universe,  but  this  progress  has  lifted  up  into  what 
we  call  the  sphere  of  morals,  and  has  been  along  certain 
other  definite  lines  of  what  we  call  righteousness  ;  so 
that  the  lesson  which  Matthew  Arnold  so  finely  deduces 
from  the  history  of  Israel  may  be  read  with  more  empha- 
sis still  in  the  history  of  the  race.  This  power  of  progress 
is  also  a  power  of  progress  toward  a  moral  ideal,  —  "a 
power  that  makes  for  righteousness."  I  need  hardly 
illustrate  this  ;  for  I  suppose  no  one  but  a  pessimist  will 
hesitate  to  accept  it.  A  full  illustration  would  be  an  out- 
line of  universal  history.  This  power  making  for  right- 
eousness has  been  that  by  which  nations  have  grown,  or 
the  rock  on  which  they  have  foundered.  The  nations 
which  to-day  stand  highest  in  civilization  are  those  which, 
on  the  whole,  best  conform  to  and  live  out  this  law. 

And,  indeed,  not  only  is  this  so,  but  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  it  must  be  so.  For  as,  in  the  body,  if  once  disease 
gains  supremacy  over  the  healthy  powers,  death  must 
ensue,  so  in  the  universe,  if  the  lawless  and  evil  forces 
were  really  in  the  majority,  the  cosmos  would  tumble  into 
chaos. 

This  inscrutable  power  of  the  universe,  then,  is  prog^ 
ress  and  righteousness  as  manifested  in  the  outlines  and 
drift  of  human  history.  / 

(3)  Come,  now,  to  man,  individual  and  social,  and  see 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  61 


what  is  manifested  here.  And  just  at  this  point  I  must 
stop  to  notice,  and  protest  against,  that  which  seems  to  me 
the  height  of  what  is  irrational  and  strange  in  the  reason- 
ing of  many,  on  the  side  of  both  science  and  theology. 
Theology,  in  its  attempt  to  exalt  man,  takes  him  out  of, 
and  sets  him  apart  from,  the  order  of  nature,  and  then 
abuses  nature  as  an  untrustworthy  guide  in  religious 
things,  because  it  does  not  find  moral  qualities — love 
and  mercy  —  in  stones  and  mountains  and  trees.  It 
takes  the  soul  out,  and  then  wonders  that  it  does  not  have 
any  soul.  And  many  scientists,  as  if  willing  to  take 
theology  at  its  word,  go  ranging  through  the  inanimate 
universe,  as  though  they  were  examining  some  mechanism 
with  which  they  had  nothing  to  do,  and  declare  that  they 
do  not  find  what  nobody  supposed  they  would  find  in  the 
material  forms  of  the  world.  As  if  the  mainspring  of  a 
watch  should  start  into  independent  life,  and  go  to  search- 
ing through  the  rest  of  the  machinery  in  the  attempt  to 
find  that  of  which  itself  was  the  representative,  and 
should  then  declare,  on  its  honor  as  a  good  piece  of  steel, 
that  the  watch  showed  no  signs  of  a  mainspring,  and  thus 
was  radically  defective  ! 

Whether  or  not  there  be  any  thing  about  man  rightly 
called  supernatural,  we  know,  that,  at  any  rate,  he  is 
natural.  He  is  a  part  of  the  life  and  order  of  the  world  ; 
and  thus,  in  all  the  myriad  manifestations  of  his  varied 
life,  he  is  an  outcome  of  the  central  power  and  life  of  the 
universe.  He  is  a  part  of  the  divine  manifestation. 
What,  then,  are  the  things  that  he  reveals  ? 


62    V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

■/Yip  />  . 

In  him,  first,  so  far  as  we  know,  does  the  world  come\ 
up   into   a  consciousness   of  personal   existence.     While 
this   does   not  prove   that   the   inscrutable  power  of  the 
world  is  a  person,  it  does  prove  that  this  power  is,  at  least, 
as  much  as,  and  as  good  as,  personal.  / 

Then,  beyond  this  personality  that  consciousness  re- 
veals, man  manifests  all  those  qualities  that  we  call  social,^ 
moral,  and  spiritual,  —  love,  devotion,  self-sacrifice,  purity, 
integrity,  patriotism,  heroism,  and  the  "enthusiasm  of 
humanity."  The  mother  watches  tirelessly  over  some/ 
sick  child ;  or  she  gives  herself  to  the  care  of  one  idiotic 
or  deformed.  She  forgets  selfishness,  and  finds  pleasure 
in  wasting  away,  and  wearing  out  her  life,  for  the  sake  of 
her  mother-love.  Men  ride  at  the  front  of  embattled 
armies,  meeting  danger,  nor  shunning  death,  for  the  tri- 
umph of  some  noble  sentiment  or  intangible  principle. 
Winkelried  takes  the  spears  of  the  foe  into  his  own  breast, 
that  he  may  make  a  breach  through  which  his  followers 
may  pour  to  a  patriotic  victory.  Mattie  Stephenson  goes 
to  plague-stricken  Memphis,  and  gives  her  life  to  a  pure 
pity  for  the  helpless  sufferers.  John  Brown  "  counts  not 
his  life  dear,"  so  he  may  be  able  to  help  a  degraded  mass 
of  slaves  up  into  freedom  and  manhood.  The  religious 
martyr  stands  chained  to  the  stake,  with  the  kindling 
fagots  about  his  shrivelling  limbs,  when  one  false  word 
would  set  him  free  ;  and  when  the  last  flame  leaps  up,  his 
life  goes  out  on  the  air  that  still  trembles  with  his  song  of 
triumph  —  and  all  for  what  he  holds  as  sacred  truth  and 
divine  light.     A  Jesus  or  a  Socrates   dies  peaceful  and 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  63  ' 

calm,  while  with  his  last  breath  he  forgives,  or  prays  for, 
the  ignorant  rage,  or  pitiable  malice,  that  puts  him  to 
death. 

Now,  this  whole  realm  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  is  a 
real  country.  These  things  are  facts  of  human  life  and 
history, — just  as  much  facts  as  the  labelled  fossil  bones 
and  the  flint  arrow-heads  of  scientific  museums.  These 
facts  are  real  and  verifiable  manifestations  of  the  power 
of  which  all  the  phenomena  of  the  universe  are  expres- 
sions. And  if  this  power  cannot  be  adequately  expressed 
in  these  terms  of  humanity,  it  is  at  least  certain  that  it  is 
as  much  and  as  good  as  these.  The  partial  expression  is 
not  false :  it  is  only  inadequate.  This  power,  then,  is  as^ 
good  and  loving,  and  pitiful  and  devoted,  as  the  best 
manifestations  of  itself  in  humanity.  S 

(4)  One  step  more  we  will  take.  Above  the  common 
level  of  our  humanity  there  rise  the  exceptional  and 
towering  summits  of  those  mountainous  men — seers, 
prophets,  poets,  lawgivers,  leaders  of  every  kind  —  that 
have  served  as  landmarks  and  observatories  for  the  race. 

Consider,  for  a  moment,  the  significance  of  the  fact  that 
there  have  been  such  men.     If  a  daisy  springs  out  of  the  \ 

sod,  it  is  because  there  was  a  daisy  in  the  sod.     If  such^j' 
men   spring   out   of  humanity,    it  is   because  there  is  in 
humanity  the  stuff  of   which  such  men  are  made.     If  a/ 
man  admires  the  grand  and  sublime,  it  is  because  there  is 
grandeur  and  sublimity  in  him  to  respond   to  the  outer 
appeal.     And  thus  the  fact  that  the  race  is  seen  on  its"^ 
face,  adoring  the   idealized  forms  of  these  sublime  and 


64s7  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


divine  men,  is  proof  that  humanity  is  potentially  such  as 
they.  / 

Now,  these  seers  and  great  ones  of  the  world  have 
manifested  something  still  more  and  higher  than  the 
common  life  of  the  race.  They  have  seemed  to  be  con- 
scious of  the  divine  and  eternal  as  other  men  are  con- 
scious of  themselves.  Above  the  low-hanging  clouds, 
like  mountain-peaks  that  forever  look  in  the  face  of  the 
clear  heaven,  and  gaze  on  the  unsetting  stars,  they  have 
looked  on  the  face  of  the  divine,  and  have  been  conscious 
of  fellowship  with  it.  And  they  have  so  dwelt  in  the 
unchanging  and  permanent  principles  of  life  and  truth, 
that  they  have  felt  that  they  tasted  immortality.  I  claim 
for  these  grand  visions  and  hopes  only  what  they  were,  — 
grand  visions  and  hopes.  But,  as  such,  they  were  facts, 
had  a  source  and  meaning ;  for  the  vision  of  an  ideal  can 
no  more  come  out  of  nothing  than  can  a  mountain  or  a 
world. 

Humanity,  then,  at  its  summit,  has  had  these  outlooks,"^ 
gained  these  glimpses  of  something  better  than  it  ever 
saw  realized,  and  gazed  at  a  "  light  that  never  was  on  seaN 
or  land." 

What,  now,  has  been  so  far  developed  ?  The  material^ 
world  is  a  manifestation  of  existence,  order,  beauty,  and 
power.  History,  in  the  physical  world  and  in  humanity, 
is  the  manifestation  of  progress.  Human  history  tells  of 
a  "power  that  makes  for  righteousness."  The  ordinary 
life  of  humanity  speaks  of  love,  devotion,  hope,  self-sacri- 
fice, purity,  pity,  and  all  the  range  of  powers  and  faculties 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  65 

that  we  call  moral  and  spiritual.  The  seers  have  had 
visions,  and  have  dreamed  dreams,  of  a  divine  life  with 
which  they  could  commune,  and  of  an  immortality  they 
could  consciously  taste. 

And  these  things  all  are  facts  of  human  knowledge. 
And  they  all  are  outcomes  and  manifestations  of  the 
infinite  and  inscrutable  life  and  power  of  which  all 
phenomena  are  expressions.  So  much,  then,  we  know; 
about  God.  The  claim  is  not  made  that  they  are  ade- 
quate, or  that  God  is  any  one  of  these  things,  or  all  of 
them  put  together.  But  the  claim  is  made,  that  these  are\ 
manifestations  of  God  just  as  really  and  truly  as  color  and 
odor  are  manifestations  of  a  lily ;  and  though  we  cannot/ 
say,  "These  are  God,"  or  "God  is  one  or  all  of  these,"  we 
can  say  that  "  He  is  as  much  as  and  as  good  as  these  not 
only,  but  that  he  fills  all  these  conceptions,  and  overruns 
them  infinitely  on  every  side,  just  as  the  light  fills  and 
overflows  the  goblet  of  the  sun."  God  is,  then ;  and  he 
is  infinitely  beyond  any  conception  we  can  frame,  or  any 
manifestation  we  have  seen  ;  and  Paul  was  right  when  he 
wrote,  "  The  invisible  things  of  him  from  the  creation  of 
the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made." 

From  "the  things  that  are  made,"  then,  and  as  matter  \ 
of  pure  science,  we  know  that  God  is.  And  we  know  that 
in  him  are  qualities  that  manifest  themselves  as  power, 
order,  intellect,  beauty,  love,  pity,  devotion,  and  all  that 
we  call  by  the  terms  "  moral "  and  "  spiritual."  You  may/ 
call  them  attributes ;  you  may  call  them  b}*  some  other 
5 


66     ^  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

term ;  you  may  not  call  them  at  all :   but  the  fact  that 
these  qualities  are  manifested  remains  just  the  same. 

And  now  I  must  call  attention  to  two  or  three  ancient, 
still  unanswered,  and  perhaps  I  may  safely  say  unanswera- 
ble, objections  that  lie  against  the  nature  and  character 
of  God  as  conceived  by  the  old  creation  theory  of  the 
world. 

(i)  If  he  is  objective  to  and  outside  of  the  universe,  as 
the  architect  is  outside  of  the  house  that  he  builds,  then 
he  is  not  infinite,  and  so  falls  short  of  our  necessary  idea 
of  Deity.     Men  speak  of  nature  as   separate  from  God\ 
and  of  God  as  making  and  ruling  nature,  as  though  it 
were  a  sort  of  machine  which  he  constructed  and  runs. 
But  the  infinite  must  include  the  all.     If  there  is  any  realX 
entity  that  is  not  divine,  then  God  is  not  king.     If  he  be 
not  in  the  dust  of  our  streets,  the  bricks  of  our  houses, 
the   beat   of   our   hearts,  then  he  is  nowhere.     The   oldy 
theory  destroys  the  infinite,  and  only  gives  us  two  finites 
in  its  place.     This  is  a  relic  of  the  old  dualistic  belief  that 
modern  thought  is  swallowing  up  in  its  all-inclusive  unity. 
If  no  other  objection  could  ever  be  brought,  this  alone 
would   be   sufficient    to    make  the    common    idea    intel- 
lectually  untenable.     This  difficulty  is  perfectly  met  and"" 
answered  by  the  evolution  theory. 

(2)  If  God  consults  and  thinks  and  plans,  as  Genesis\ 
represents  him  doing,  then  he  is  simply  a  magnified  man 
made  in  our  image.    This  kind  of  deity  is  only  the  spectrey 
of  the  Brocken,  the  gigantic  shadow  of  man  himself  pro- 
jected against  the  clouds.     Against  this  might  be  brough*- 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  67^ 


the  old  prophet's  accusation,  where  he  represents  God  as 
saying,  "  Thou  thoughtest  that  I  was  altogether  such  an 
one  as  thyself;  but  I  will  reprove  thee." 

(3)  Then,  again,  on  the  old  theory,  it  is  impossible  to\ 
relieve  God  of  the  responsibility  of  the  authorship  of  evil./ 
Brave  old  Lyman  Beecher  may  say,  "  I  don't  want  any 
son  of  mine  to  defend  the  character  of  God.     He  is  able 
to  look  after  himself."     But  the  popular  God  of   Chris- 
tianity needs  the  defence,  nevertheless.     And  all  the  theo- 
logical works  on  the  divine  government  ever  written  have 
not  defended  him,  either.     Milton  started  out  to  "  justify 
the  ways  of  God  to  man,"  but  succeeded  only  in  leaving 
it  a  question  as  to  whether  Satan  were  not  the  hero  of  his 
poem.     Edward   Beecher  postulated  pre-existence  as  the 
answer ;  but  this  only  made   the  charge  more    ancient, 
without  clearing  it  up.     There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  evader- 
it.     An  all-wise,  all-powerful,  and    all-loving   God   might 
have  made  a  better  world.     And  to  say  that  he  made  iy 
all  —  good   and   bad,   and  both  eternal  —  "for   his   own 
glory  "  is  only  to  add  infinite  selfishness  and  egotism  to 
the   original   difficulty;   also  that,  being  God,  he  had   a 
right  to  do  as  he  chose,  is  only  to  justify  the  Neros  and 
Napoleons   of   history   by    making   divine    the   infamous 
cruelty  that  "might  makes  right."     The  world  is  neither 
physically  nor  morally  perfect ;  and  John  Stuart  Mill  only 
voices  the  thought  of  all  earnest  and  honest  minds,  when 
he  praises  his  wife  as  one   "  free  from  that  superstition 
that   ascribes  a   pretended   perfection   to   the   universe." 
He  says,  if  God  made  the  best  world  he  could,  then  he  is 


68  \ 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


not  almighty;  and  if  he  could  have  made  a  better,  and 
did  not,  then  he  is  not  perfect  goodness.  If  the  Church 
says,  "  The  earth  is  cursed  for  the  fall  of  man,"  then  who 
made  man  fall  ?  If  it  answer,  "  The  devil,"  then  who 
made  the  devil  ?  and  if  it  still  say,  "  Either  devil,  or  man, 
or  both,  chose  freely  to  sin,"  then  why  did  God  permit  it? 
or  why  make  them  so  that  they  would  fall  ?  The  difficulty 
only  shifts  and  changes :  it  is  not  removed.  It  always 
comes  back  on  God,  after  all. 

But  evolution  at  least  hints  a  satisfactory  reply.  By'-— 
this  theory,  the  universe  is  still  growing ;  and  by  the  very 
terms  of  the  conception,  any  thing  that  is  growing  is 
never,  at  any  particular  stage  of  the  growth,  complete. 
You  would  not  criticise  a  picture  still  on  the  easel :  wait 
till  the  artist  is  done.  The  summer-sweeting  is  bitter  the  / 
first  of  June.     The  old  hymn,  then,  is  good  science :  — 

"  His  purposes  will  ripen  fast  (slow), 
Unfolding  every  hour ; 
The  bud  may  have  a  bitter  taste, 
But  sweet  will  be  the  flower." 

And  then  the  drift  of  science  is  pointing  toward  the 
probability  that  evil  is  not  a  real  thing  at  all.  It  is  only 
temporary  maladjustment,  a  condition  to  be  outgrown. 
Evolution,  then,  may  believe  in  a  perfect  God.  It  asks 
not  unreasoning  faith.  It  plants  itself  on  the  solid  facts 
of  the  past,  and  waits  to  see  the  same  forces  unfold  ever 
new  and  newer  glories,  and  justify  grander  and  still 
grander  hopes. 


THE   GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  69 V 


It  remains  to  notice  one  or  two  questions  or  objections 
that  must  be  disposed  of  before  our  subject  is  complete. 

(1)  The  materialist  comes  and  says,  "I  grant  that  all v 
these  things  that  you  have  said  are  facts  ;  but  how  do  you 
know  that  every  thing  is  not  the  result  of  the  various 
combinations  of  matter  ?  Who  shall  say  that  the  poems/ 
of  Shakspere,  the  science  of  Newton,  and  the  religion 
of  Jesus,  are  not  the  outflowering  of  the  higher  and  finer 
forms  of  matter,  just  as  much  as  the  rose  is  a  blossoming 
of  the  dust  ?  "  Such  questions  as  these  are  asked  by 
some  of  the  best  thinkers  of  the  time.  We  cannot  afford 
to  slight  them. 

I  have  two  suggestions  by  way  of  reply.  And,  first,  if 
you  say  these  things  that  we  call  intellectual  and  spiritual 
inhere  in  and  come  out  of  matter,  then  you  change  the 
whole  conception  of  the  term,  and  matter  becomes  some- 
thing spiritual  and  divine.  This  is  utter  destruction  of 
the  old  materialism,  and  makes  matter  only  a  form  of  the 
eternal.  It  simply  converts  matter  into  what  we  mean 
when  we  say  spirit.  But,  in  the  second  place,  I  challenge 
any  man  living  to  prove  that  matter  is  a  real  and  substan- 
tial existence  in  itself,  and  as  separated  from  the  force 
and  life  that  we  call  spirit.  So  far  as  any  man  can  tell,'^ 
matter  is  only  the  robe  that  spirit  and  life  eternally  weave 
for  themselves,  and  no  more  capable  of  separation  from 
them  than  light  can  be  separated  from  sunshine.  What 
matter  is,  or  what  spirit  is,  in  itself,  nobody  knows  :  so 
that  to  say  there  is  nothing  but  matter,  is  just  as  offensive 
and  unwarranted  dogmatism  as  is  any  ecclesiastical  claim 


70  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

whatever.      Even  a  man  like   Huxley  will   say  that  the/ 
idealism  of  Berkeley  is  more  consonant  with  our  present 
knowledge  than  is  dogmatic  materialism. 

(2)  Another  question  :  Is  the  God  of  evolution  a  peA 
sonal  God  ?  ' 

Here,  again,  I  must  make  a  twofold  answer.  If  your 
term  "  person  "  implies  what  we  mean  when  we  say  Gen. 
Grant  is  a  person,  or  Queen  Victoria  is  a  person,  then  any 
thoughtful  mind  will  have  to  say  No  :  God  is  not  a  person 
in  that  sense.  This  kind  of  personality  is  limited,  out- 
lined, localized.  Any  true  thought  of  God  recognizes  himl 
as  infinite  ;  and  the  infinite  cannot  be  bounded,  outlined, 
or  localized.  You  must  not  paint  God  as  Moses  and/ 
Michael  Angelo  did,  as  only  a  great  man,  exalted,  and 
sitting  on  a  throne,  even  if  you  give  him  the  brow  of  Jove, 
and  put  the  lightning  in  his  grasp.  Jesus  asserted  the 
higher  idea  when  he  said,  "  God  is  a  spirit."  He  is  not 
on  Zion  or  Gerizim  alone,  but  everywhere.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  by  denying  him  personality  you  take  away 
from  him  something,  and  lower  him  in  your  thought,  you 
must  not  do  it.  He  is  not  less  than  personal,  but  in- 
finitely more.  Personality,  in  man,  is  one  of  his  minor 
manifestations  ;  and  that  which  is  manifested  is  not  some- 
thing more,  but  something  less,  than  that  which  manifests. 
Nothing  comes  out  of  nothing ;  neither  does  the  greater 
come  out  of  the  less.  God,  then,  is  all  of  good  and  great 
and  helpful  that  we  mean  by  personal ;  and  beyond  that 
he  is  infin'tely  more  than  the  word  "  personal  "  can  ex- 
press. 


THE  GOD   OF  EVOLUTION.  71 


Who,  then,  is  the  God  of  evolution  ?  Not  the  mechani- 
cal contriver,  or  the  Oriental  despot  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment; not  the  Zoroastrian  Ahura-Mazda,  ruling  but  half 
the  world  ;  not  the  Hindoo  Brahm  asleep  in  the  heavens  ; 
not  a  deity  dwelling  in  temples,  and  only  to  be  sought 
at  special  altars ;  not  the  partial  and  implacable  God  of 
Calvin  ;  not  one  sitting  afar  on  his  throne,  to  be  reached 
only  through  mediators.  The  righteousness  which  is  by 
evolution  speaketh  on  this  wise  :  Say  not  in  thy  heart, 
Who  shall  ascend  into  heaven  to  bring  him  down  ?  nor, 
Who  will  descend  into  the  deep  to  bring  him  up  ?  But 
what  saith  it  ?  God  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth  and 
in  thy  heart.  And  it  says  this  with  a  reality  and  meaning 
never  said  before.  Or  it  borrows  the  beautiful  and  mystic 
tongue  of  Wordsworth,  and  speaks  of 

"  A  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man  ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

Or,  with  Alexander  Pope,  it  is  ready  to  run  its  faith  into 
music,  and  sing,  — 

"All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul ; 
That,  changed  through  all,  is  yet  in  all  the  same  ; 
Great  in  the  earth  as  in  the  ethereal  frame  : 


72  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees, 
Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent, 
Breathes  in  our  soul,  informs  our  mortal  part, 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  a  hair  as  heart ; 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  vile  man  that  mourns 
As  the  rapt  seraph  that  adores  and  burns ; 
To  him  no  high,  no  low,  no  great,  no  small : 
He  fills,  he  bounds,  connects,  and  equals  all." 


rvr. 

THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION. 

One  of  the  most  noted  sayings  of  the  early  philosophy 
in  Greece  was  contained  in  the  two  words,  "  Know  thy- 
self." And,  however  much  we  may  be  interested  in  stars 
or  earth  or  animals,  yet  history,  biography,  epic  poetry, 
and  the  universal  love  for  novels,  tragedy,  comedy,  and 
stories,  show  that  to  man  the  most  interesting  thing  in  the 
world  is  humanity.  Even  trivial  gossip  is  only  interest  in 
our  fellow-creatures  that  has  turned  a  little  sour.  Thus 
the  nature  of  man,  his  origin,  and  how  he  came  into  his 
present  condition,  and  the  drift  of  his  true  progress  — 
these  are  the  most  practical  of  all  questions.  And  all  the 
great  concerns  of  the  day, — religious  theory  and  experi- 
ence, matters  of  reform,  how  to  deal  with  crime,  methods 
of  politics  and  government,  —  all  must  find  their  ultimate 
solution  in  the  nature  of  man.  The  farmer,  the  physician, 
die  chemist,  the  carpenter,  the  worker  in  metals,  all 
practical  laborers,  know  that  their  success  depends  upon 
their  knowledge  of  the  materials  in  which  they  work. 
The  stonecutter  cannot  hammer  his  blocks  into  shape  any 

73 


74  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


more  than  the  blacksmith  can  grind  or  chisel  his.  The 
work  all  turns  on  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  material. 
So  it  is  beginning  to  be  found  out  that  much  of  the 
religious,  philanthropic,  and  political  work  of  the  world 
has  been  thrown  away  for  lack  of  a  true  knowledge  of  the 
nature,  the  capabilities,  and  the  needs  of  humanity. 

But  to  what  source  shall  we  go  to  learn  the  nature  of 
man  ?     For  ages  men  took  all  their  ideas  about  the  stars 
and   the   earth   and    the    animals    from   certain    ancient 
records  of  what  the  men  of  old  time  thought  about  these 
things.     But  at  last  it  occurred  to  them  to  study  the  stars 
and  the  earth  and  the  animals  ;  and  from  that  study  they 
learned  that  all  those   ideas  were  wrong.      It  took  the 
world  a  long  while  to  learn  that  the  best  way  to  find  out 
about  them  was  to  look  at  them.     A  few  people  are  just 
beginning  to  wake  up  to  the  notion  that  the  best  way  to 
learn  the  nature  of  man  is  to  look  at  him.     In  the  words 
of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  "  We  must  study  man  as  we 
have  studied  the  stars  and  the  rocks.     We  need  not  go  to 
our  sacred  books  for  astronomy  or  geology.     Do  not  stop 
there.     Say  now  bravely,  as  you  will  sooner  or  later  have 
to  say,  that  we  need  not  go  to  any  ancient  records  for  our 
anthropology.     Do  we  not  all  hope,  at  least,  that  the  doc- 
trine of  man's  being  a  blighted  abortion,  a  miserable  dis- 
appointment to  his  Creator,  and  hostile  and  hateful  to  him 
from  his  birth,  may  give  way  to  the  belief  that  he  is  the 
latest  terrestrial  manifestation  of  an  ever  upward-striving 
movement   of  divine  power  ?     If  there  lives  a  man  who 
does  not  want  to  disbelieve  the  popular  notions  about  the 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  75 

condition  and  destiny  of  the  bulk  of  his  race,  I  should  like 
to  have  him  look  me  in  the  face  and  tell  me  so."  And  he 
adds,  "We  have  taken  the  disease  of  thinking  in  the 
natural  way.  It  is  an  epidemic  in  these  times  ;  and  those 
who  are  afraid  of  it  must  shut  themselves  up  close,  or 
they  will  catch  it." 

It  is  time,  then,  that  we  studied  man  to  find  out  about 
man ;  he  is  not  inaccessible,  a  great  way  off,  and  hard  to 
come  at :  he  is  the  nearest  fact  of  life.  We  can  look  at 
him,  and  find  out  about  him.  And  within  the  last  fifty 
years  the  records  of  his  genealogy  have  been  discovered. 
We  can  now,  in  spite  of  some  gaps  in  it,  trace  the  line  of 
his  descent,  and  find  out  where  he  came  from,  and  by 
what  steps  he  has  progressed. 

There  are  two  great  and  fundamentally  opposite  notions 
concerning  human  nature,  that,  with  sufficient  accuracy,  I 
may  call  the  Oriental  and  the  Occidental,  the  Eastern  and 
the  Western.  The  Chinese,  the  Hindoo,  the  Arabic,  the 
Jewish  —  these  may  represent  the  Oriental.  The  Greek, 
the  Roman,  the  German,  the  English,  and  the  American, 
may  represent  the  Occidental.  The  Occidental  is  the 
theory  of  self-respect.  All  our  modern  civilization  is  the 
result  of  it.  It  believes  in  the  grand  capacity  and  noble 
possibilities  of  the  race.  It  seeks  to  make  the  most  of 
itself,  and  of  the  exhaustless  resources  of  the  world.  The 
Oriental  is  the  theory  of  self-contempt.  It  casts  dust  and 
ashes  upon  its  head,  and  lays  its  mouth  in  the  dust  before 
some  supposed  divine  despot.  It  looks  on  life  as  mean, 
and  the  body  as  vile.     It  is  a  part  of  the  belief  that  all 


7 6  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


matter  and  all  life  are  evil.  The  Brahmin  and  Buddhist 
aspiration  to  escape  the  curse  of  life  by  absorption  in 
deity,  or  the  calm  of  practical  annihilation,  is  its  natural 
fruit  in  religion.  Political  stagnation,  social  degradation, 
and  a  listless  submission  to  cruel  and  fickle  despots,  are 
the  natural  fruits  in  practical  affairs.  The  absurdity  of 
the  mixture  of  the  two  may  be  seen  in  church  on  almost 
any  Sunday,  when  some  self-respecting,  wealthy,  and 
ambitious  man,  who  is  doing  his  utmost  to  get  on  in  the 
world,  mumbles  over  after  the  priest  his  Sunday  creed  — 
so  different  from  his  Monday  one  !  —  that  life  is  a  "  vain 
show,"  wealth  a  snare,  the  ambitions  and  successes  of  life 
a  delusion,  and  he  himself  a  "  miserable  offender  j " 
when,  if  anybody  else  should  call  him  a  "  miserable 
offender,"  he  would  stand  up  in  his  dignified  self-respect, 
and  knock  him  down.  It  only  means  that  he  is  living  an 
Occidental  life,  and  that  he  has  inherited  an  Oriental 
creed. 

The  orthodox  conception  of  man  and  his  relation  toA^ 
God,  total  depravity,  supernatural  redemption,  and  eternal 
punishment,  these  are  the  outcome  of  the  Oriental  theory 
that  is  a  part  of  our  religious  inheritance.  In  the  East  it  iJ 
took  two  forms  ;  one,  that  being  connected  with  matter 
at  all,  being  born  into  fleshly  bodies,  was  the  source  and 
cause  of  all  evil.  This  is  Hindoo,  Buddhist,  and  Plato  ; 
and,  through  the  Alexandrian  schools  of  Philo  and  Neo- 
platonism,  it  has  tainted  and  colored  all  our  early  Chris- 
tian thought.  The  other  is  embodied  in  the  story  of 
Genesis.     This  allows  that  there  was  one  man  pure  and 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION  77 

holy  in  a  natural  body  ;  but  he  early  fell  under  the  power 
of  matter,  and  all  his  descendants  are  born  immersed  in 
it,  and  depraved. 

Now,  as  this  story  of  Genesis  is  the  basis  of  the  popu- 
lar theology,  and  as  this  and  the  evolution  theory  are  the 
only  ones  that  earnest  men  in  America  are  concerned 
with,  we  will  narrow  down  our  discussion  to  these. 

The  popular  belief  is  that  somewhere  in  the  valley  of 
Euphrates,  God  created,  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness 
world,  a  garden  of  delights,  a  paradise  of  perfect  inno- 
cence and  beauty.  In  this  garden,  to  dress  and  keep  and 
enjoy  it,  were  placed  Adam  and  Eve.  They  two  were 
physically  and  morally  perfect.  As  old  Dr.  South  ex- 
presses it,  "  An  Aristotle  was  but  the  rubbish  of  an  Adam, 
and  Athens  but  the  rudiments  of  Paradise."  But  right 
on  the  heels  of  perfection  came  utter  ruin.  A  serpent  — 
popularly  supposed  to  be  the  devil,  though  the  story  says 
nothing  of  the  kind,  and  the  devil  was  not  invented  till 
ages  afterward  —  is  found  equal  to  the  task  of  frustrating 
the  work  of  God,  and  seducing  the  obedience  of  man. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  serpent  is  only  an  allegorical 
figure  setting  forth  the  supposed  sinfulness  of  fleshly 
desire,  thus  linking  this  story  with  the  old  notion  that  the 
flesh  was  inherently  sinful.  Any  way,  Adam  fell ;  and 
God  had  created  him  in  such  unity  of  relationship  with 
all  his  race  that  he  dragged  down  with  him  all  mankind. 
Heaven  and  hell  hung  on  an  apple-bough  ;  and,  when  the 
fruit  was  tasted, — 

"  In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all." 


■■ ■■  ■  ■■- ■ ■ ■ 

7W  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

The  race  was  hopelessly  lost.  For  "  one  man's  disobedi- 
ence "  God,  who  just  before  had  pronounced  his  work 
very  good,  turns  all  his  love  to  hate.  He  curses  the 
earth,  even,  for  man's  sake,  and  dooms  him  and  his 
posterity  to  labor  and  sorrow. 

Now,  this  is  the  corner-stone  on  which  the  whole  system 
of  orthodox  theology  rests.  Total  depravity,  moral  help^ 
lessness,  infant-damnation,  fore-ordination,  limited  vicari- 
ous atonement,  and  everlasting  punishment  —  these  all 
follow,  with  the  fatal  necessity  of  an  irresistible  logic, 
from  the  fall  in  Adam.  And  in  the  light  of  this  necessary 
logic  you  may  see  the  weakness  of  the  positions  occupied 
by  the  "  liberal  orthodoxy "  of  the  time.  The  moral 
sentiment  of  the  age  has  revolted  against  the  dogma  of 
infant-damnation,  which  was  once  universally  held ;  and 
now  it  is  cast  to  the  rubbish  heap  of  cruel  superstitions. 
But  he  who  believes  in  the  fall  of  man  must  logically 
believe  infant-damnation.  And  why  it  is  any  worse  to 
damn  an  infant,  than  it  is  to  damn  a  man  who  is  born 
and  who  lives  a  helplessly  and  hopelessly  depraved  life 
of  forty  years,  is  difficult  to  see.  The  one  was  no  more 
responsible  for  himself  than  the  other.  Then  there  are 
thousands  who  have  rejected  the  fall,  who  yet  cling  to  the 
atonement.  But  if  man  is  not  fallen,  there  is  no  need  of 
an  atonement.  It  must  soon  be  seen  that  this  whole 
system  is  an  arch  of  doctrine  in  which  every  stone  takes 
hold  of,  supports,  and  is  supported  by,  every  other  stone. 
Knock  out  one  of  these,  and  the  whole  fabric  tumbles  into 
confusion;   so    that    the  only  logical  position  is  the  old 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  79^ 

orthodoxy  or  reason.  Such  men  as  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring 
of  New  York  did  not  fear  to  face  and  accept  the  logic, 
and  say,  "  God  saves  and  he  damns  just  the  number  he 
wishes  to  in  carrying  out  his  own  purposes." 

Now,   this  doctrine,  that  God  created  man  physically,  \ 
intellectually,  and  morally  complete,   in   a   moment,  and 
that  by  one  sin  he  fell  into  a  condition  from  which  the 
present  condition  of  humanity  is  the  result,  is  surrounded 
by  difficulties  that  seem  to  be  insuperable.     Let  us  glance • 
at  some  of  them. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  there  is  absolutely  no  proof  of 
any  thing  of  the  kind.     It  is  at  the  best  an  Old-World,/ 
Oriental  tradition.     There  is  not  a  single  known  fact  that 
can  be  brought  to  its  support,  or  that  cannot  be  better 
explained  in  some  other  way.     Were  it  not  supposed  to  be'v. 
divine  revelation,  no  one  would  think  of  arguing  in  its 
favor.     And  the  narrative  is  so  mixed  up  with  crudities/ 
and  absurdities  and  contradictions  and  immoralities,  that 
it  is  a  dishonor  to  any  high  idea  of  God  to  suppose  him 
capable  of  doing  the  deeds,  or  of  inspiring  a  record  of 
them. 

In  the  next  place,  that  God  should  make  a  man,  or  anys 
thing  else,  full-grown  in  a  minute,  is  utterly  against  all 
that  we  really  know  of  the  divine  method.  All  things./ 
grow ;  and  there  is  not  a  flower,  or  shrub,  or  tree,  or  ani- 
mal on  earth,  that  does  not  have  on  it,  not  only  the  marks 
of  its  individual  development,  but  also  the  traces  of  an 
ancestral  growth  that  reaches  back  into  the  earliest  dawn 
of  time.     The  thought  is  as  absurd,  and  as  incongruous 


8c/  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


with  all  our  knowledge,  as  the  boy's  question  when,  in 
answer  to  his  father's  statement  that  God  could  do  any- 
thing he  pleased,  he  asked  him  if  God  could  "  make  a 
two-year-old  colt  in  fifteen  minutes." 

Again,  the  story  of  Genesis  does  not  account  for  the 
past  history,  the  present  abodes,  and  the  different  con- 
ditions, of  the  various  races  over  the  face  of  the  earth./ 
That  a  being,  of  whom  Aristotle  was  only  the  "  rubbish," 
should  have  produced  descendants  ranging  all  the  way 
from  Newton  to  the  South-sea  Islanders,  the  Patagonians, 
the  Bushmen  and  Pygmies  of  Central  Africa,  is  something 
that  the  fall  of  man  does  not  explain.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  sin  alone  that  can  account  for  it.  The 
influence  of  nature  and  the  laws  of  life  can  account  for  all 
these  varieties.  And  it  is  curious  to  notice,  that,  while 
orthodoxy  denies  that  nature  has  any  such  power  over  the 
development  and  modification  of  man  as  evolution  asserts, 
it  is  yet  obliged  to  call  in  just  the  forces  that  science  pro- 
claims to  explain  the  facts  which  it  cannot  deny.  Nature N 
asks  as  large  powers  to  make  all  the  races  out  of  Adam, 
as  she  demands  to  make  them  out  of  protoplasm. 

And  then  we  know  —  it  is  no  guesswork  any  longer :  we 
know  —  that   great   civilizations   existed,   that   men  were) 
born,  loved,  hated,  hunted,  fought,  and  died,  thousands 
of  years  before  Genesis  says  that  man  was  created  andx 
fell. 

And,  once  more,  the  theory  (as  I  illustrated  somewhatV 
in  the  preceding  paper)  makes  God  a  moral  monster. 

Whether,  then,  we  can  accept  any  other  theory  or  not, 


/ 

THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  %\V 


even  if  we  have  to  go  without  a  theory,  this  one  we  cannot 
hold.  I  might  be  content  to  say,  "  I  know  and  can  know 
nothing  about  God  :  I  must  walk  my  path  of  life  in  the 
dark,  waiting  to  see  what  the  future  will  develop  ;  "  but  I 
cannot  consent  to  say,  "  I  love,  I  will  worship,  or  even  I 
respect,  such  a  God  as  is  taught  by  the  popular  theology." 
If  there  is  a  supreme  power  in  the  universe  capable  of 
making  such  a  humanity  as  is  preached,  and  of  treating 
his  child  as  he  is  represented  as  treating  man,  then 
though  I  may  have  to  submit  to  his  power,  as  feeble 
nations  submit  to  despots,  yet  I  will  not,  can  not,  love  him, 
nor  bow  to  him  my  knee.  And  if  I  must  go  to  hell  with 
the  noble  livers  and  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world,  then 
I  would  choose  it  rather  than  the  place  of  court  favorite 
in  the  presence  of  one  who  makes  evil,  and  torture,  and 
everlasting  prison-houses,  for  his  own  glory. 

We  come  now  to  consider  the  evolution  theory  of  hu-s 
man  nature,  and  to  notice  how  far  it  corresponds  with  the 
known  facts  of  the  world.  What  is  the  theory  ?  That  all 
life  on  the  globe  is  a  unit,  like  a  tree,  and  that  man  is  the 
crowning  blossom  on  the  topmost  bough.  To  confine  our-, 
selves  to  our  immediate  ancestry,  it  teaches  that  man  has 
developed  from  the  animal  life  beneath  him.  I  am  aware 
that  the  popular  mind  is  full  of  prejudice  on  this  subject, 
and  that  a  large  part  of  its  impressions  have  been  derived 
from  newspaper  jokes  and  caricatures.  But  I  hope  it  will 
be  remembered,  that  those  persons  who  set  up  in  the  busi- 
ness of  making  people  laugh  are  not  particular  about  their 
materials.     They  will  ridicule  any  thing  that  the  popular 


6 


82  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION.  ' 


taste  will  allow  ;  just  as  Aristophanes  wrote  comedies  to 
make  Athens  laugh  at  Socrates ;  and  as  the  London 
"  Punch  "  ridiculed  and  caricatured  Lincoln  because  Eng- 
lish opinion  then  favored  it.  I  can  sympathize  with  a 
man  who  shrinks  from  recognizing  the  ape  as  among  his 
poor  relations,  particularly  if  there  is  a  family  likeness 
that  he  fears  will  be  discovered ;  but  really  we  must  put 
prejudice  one  side  :  this  is  a  matter  not  of  feeling,  but  of 
fact.  I,  for  one,  am  ready  to  think  it  far  more  wondrous 
and  honorable  that  my  body  should  have  come  to  its 
present  perfection  by  the  marvellous  pathway  of  the  ani- 
mal world,  than  that  it  came  straight  from  the  slime  and 
the  mud.  Which  is  the  more  honorable  material,  — \ 
mysterious,  complex  life,  or  dirt  ?  I  should  be  ashamed,, 
of  arguing  this  point,  were  it  not  for  the  prejudice.  I  am 
not  half  as  anxious  to  find  out  that  I  did  not  come  from 
an  ape,  as  I  am  to  know  that  I  am  not  travelling  toward 
one.  Where  we  came  from,  touches  not  the  matter  of 
what  we  are.  "  Now  are  we  the  sons  of  God ; "  and,  if 
evolution  be  true,  well  and  grandly  may  we  add,  "  It  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  People  who  get  up  in 
the  world  are  sometimes  ashamed  of  their  parentage  ;  but 
I  think  it  much  more  important  that  we  be  careful  that  our 
children  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  their  parentage. 
And  since  my  line  runs  back  millions  of  years,  and  ends 
in  God,  I  see  no  good  cause  for  being  ashamed  of  the 
long  and  wondrous  way  by  which  it  has  come.  Say  it 
plainly,  then  :  we  have  derived  our  present  life  from  the 
animals.     For  the  forces  and  laws  of  this  development,  I 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  83 

must  refer  you  to  the  works  devoted  to  their  explana- 
tion. It  is  sufficient  for  me  to  say  that  known  laws 
and  forces  are  able  to  account  for  all  the  facts  and  re- 
sults of  evolution.  As  an  illustrative  hint  of  the  power 
of  nature  over  humanity,  you  may  take  it  as  an  approxi- 
mately correct  statement,  that  if  a  race  could  start  at  the 
North  Pole,  and  march  southward,  being  some  millions  of 
years  on  the  journey,  stopping  long  enough  for  all  the 
forces  of  its  changing  conditions  to  produce  their  effects 
upon  the  new-coming  members,  such  a  race  would  pass 
through  all  the  changes,  and  exhibit  all  the  peculiarities, 
of  all  the  races  that  have  been  actually  subjected  to  these 
various  conditions.  The  natural  force  of  development 
worked  on  the  body  until  it  reached  its  upright  attitude 
and  present  comparative  perfection.  Then,  when  brain- 
power became  the  winning  element  in  the  struggle  for  life, 
the  same  force  turned  to  brain.  And  now  the  moral  is 
gradually  gaining  supremacy;  and  the  time  will  come 
when  this  will  be  reckoned  the  mightiest,  as  it  is  now 
admitted  to  be  the  noblest,  force  of  humanity.  The  moral 
power  is  coming  to  be  the  power  that  wins. 

Thus,  in  accordance  with  these  hints,  evolution  has  no 
more  difficulty  in  accounting  for  intellect  and  righteous- 
ness, than  it  has  in  explaining  muscles  and  bones. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  suggestions  and  probabili- 
ties. 

And,  first,  there  is  a  marvellous  sense  of  sympathy  in 
our  souls  for  the  whole  wide  life  of  nature.  Lowell  talks 
of  trees  being  his  ancestors,  and  of  his  lying  under  the 


84    '/  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

willows  and  listening  to  their  whispers.  Who  has  not  felt 
the  storm,  or  the  stars,  or  the  pines,  speaking  to  his  inner 
consciousness?  By  more  than  poetic  figure  we  call  the 
earth  our  mother ;  and  we  love,  in  sunny  spring,  to  go 
back  to  our  childhood,  and  lie  upon  her  bosom.  Every 
sensitive  nature  has  a  subtle  sense  of  kinship  with  all  the 
forms  of  natural  life.  Nature  plays  upon  us,  and  creates 
our  moods.  We  sing  with  the  birds,  and  cry  with  the 
rain.  The  sunshine  or  gloom  of  the  sky  gets  reflected  in 
our  faces.  The  life  of  spring  starts  our  blood  into  ting- 
ling pulsation  in  unison  with  the  waking  activity  of  ani- 
mals and  the  sap  in  the  trees.  Now,  I  believe  all  this 
wondrous  feeling  of  kinship  is  best  explained  by  saying 
we  are  akin. 

And  if   you  will  notice  the  particular  facts  of   animal^ 
life,  you  will  be  surprised  that  the  gulf  between  them  and 
us  is  so  very  narrow.     What  was  once  supposed  to  be  an/ 
impassable  ocean  is  only  a  tiny  rill.     The  animals  shared 
with   us   almost   every  one   of    our  habits  and  faculties. 
Animals  think,  reason,  hope,  fear,  remember,  laugh,  and 
cry.     They  are  faithful  to  their  marriage-bonds,  and  de- 
voted to  their  offspring;   they  are  organized  in  commu- 
nities and  governments ;  they  domesticate  and  use  other 
animals,  even  milking  them  as  we  do  cows ;  they  have 
social  grades,  aristocracies,  soldiers,  artisans,  and  slaves ; 
they  make  war,  and  bring   home  captives ;   they  punish 
for  crime,  and  execute   the  death-penalty ;    they  lay  out 
and  build  cities ;  they  station  sentinels,  and  have  watch- 
men ;    they  decorate  and  ornament   their  persons ;   they 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  85 

care  for  each  other,  and  will  fight  in  each  other's  defence, 
or  in  the  common  defence  of  home  and  country :  in  short, 
there  is  hardly  a  single  faculty  of  humanity  they  do  not 
share.  The  difference  between  these  animal  powers  and 
customs  and  those  of  man  is  chiefly  one  of  degree.  The 
power  of  abstract  thought  and  the  development  of  the 
religious  faculty  and  life  are  the  great  essential  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  distinctions.  The  animal  world,  then, 
is  only  a  step  beneath  us ;  and  that  step  evolution  is 
perfectly  able  to  take. 

Coming  to  and  dealing  with  the  body  alone,  it  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  almost  all  forms  of  life  have  what  are 
called  rudimentary  organs ;  that  is,  certain  limbs  or  parts 
that  were  fully  developed  in  one  grade  of  life,  but,  not 
being  needed  in  the  higher  grade,  are  outgrown,  leaving 
behind  them  only  a  rudiment  to  show  where  and  what 
they  used  to  be ;  just  as,  in  an  old  tree,  you  often  see 
where  a  limb  once  was  that  has  now  died  out.  The 
fishes  in  Mammoth  Cave  have  rudimentary  eyes.  Os- 
triches have  rudimentary  wings.  These  as  simple  illustra- 
tions. I  can  only  stop  to  say  that  man  also  has  several 
very  striking  rudimentary  organs,  which,  if  developed 
to-day,  would  make  him  as  thoroughly  animal  in  his 
appearance  as  is  even  his  chimpanzee  ancestor. 

Another  very  remarkable  thing  I  must  only  mention. 
Every  child,  before  its  birth,  in  the  course  of  its  develop- 
ment, passes  through  ever}'  phase  of  animal  life  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest.  Thus  man  recapitulates  and  takes 
up  into  himself   all  the  life  beneath  him.     Every  infant 


86  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

born  passes  over  again  the  whole  pathway  of  the  progress 
of  life  on  the  globe. 

And  then,  after  he  is  born,  every  child  begins  life  an 
animal,  and  grows  up  through  and  out  of  barbarism  into 
the  civilization  of  culture  and  training.  The  child's  play- 
things are  copies  of  barbaric  weapons,  —  club,  and  bow 
and  arrow,  and  spear ;  and  the  games  of  children  in  the 
nursery  and  on  the  sidewalk,  and  the  school  playground, 
are  mimic  copyings  of  old  religious  rituals ;  and  their 
meaningless  rhymes  and  formulas  are  the  remnants  of 
Old-World  stately  ceremonials.  So  the  child  again,  in  his 
training,  recapitulates  and  lives  over  once  more  the  whole 
progress  of  civilization. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  such  a  man  is  foxy, 
another  is  lion-like,  a  third  is  wolfish,  there  are  "  bulls 
and  bears "  in  the  stock-market,  others  are  swinish. 
These  are  looked  upon  as  purely  figures  of  speech  ;  but 
evolution  fills  such  phrases  with  a  meaning  they  did  not 
have  before.  Just  as  we  may  have  the  hair  or  eyes  or 
gait  of  not  only  our  father  or  mother,  but  of  ancestors  a 
hundred  generations  gone,  so  we  may  show  still  the  good 
or  evil  traits,  propensities,  and  passions,  that  characterized 
our  animal  ancestry  a  thousand  ages  ago.  The  thread  of 
a  common  life  runs  through,  and  binds  together  in  one, 
all  forms  of  existence  on  the  planet. 

The  battle  of  our  moral  life,  on  this  theory,  is  ration- 
ally explained  to  be  just  what  we  know  it  to  be, — a  fight 
between  the  higher  and  the  lower.  The  animal  obeys  his 
impulses  ;    and,  having  no  moral  sense,  of  course  there 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  87  V 

is  no  thought  of  wrong,  nor  any  possibility  of  remorse. 
The  child,  at  first,  does  the  same,  and  has  no  more  moral 
sense  than  the  horse.  But  as  this  sense  unfolds,  the 
conflict  begins.  It  is  the  contest  between  impulses, 
and  duties  toward  our  fellows  and  our  higher  self.  "  I 
wish  "  and  "  I  ought  "  are  in  antagonism.  It  is  just  the 
fight  that  Paul  so  graphically  pictures  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  Romans :  "  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inner  [higher]  man ;  but  I  find  another  law  in  my 
members  [body]  warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind." 
And,  as  many  of  us  have  exclaimed,  he  cries  out,  "O, 
wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  " 

This  theory,  then,  adequately  explains  the  whole  battle^ 
of  the  moral  life.     Man  is  struggling  up,  out  of  the  ani- 
mal, toward  mind  and  spirit.     When  the  animal  gains  the^ 
mastery,  he  is  degraded,  and  falls  back   into  a   position 
worse  than  that  of  the  animal,  by  as  much  as  he  is  capa- 
ble of  something  higher ;  and  so  when  he  misses  it  he  is 
self-condemned,  and  condemned  by  mankind.     However 
low  or  mean,  you  do  not  condemn  a  thing  if  it  is  all  it 
is  capable  of ;  but,  however  high,  you  still  condemn  if  it  is 
content  to  fall  below  its  highest  possibility.     Sin,  then,  is  -«r 
not  a  substance  or  entity  that  either  god  or  devil  put  into 
a  man,  and  that  a  priest  can  exorcise,  prayer  expel,  or 
baptism    wash   away.     It   is   only  the   supremacy  of   thes 
lower  over  the  higher  in  man  ;  and  guilt  is  the  conscious- 
ness  of  this.       Righteousness   is   the   supremacy   of   the 
moral  and  spiritual,  —  a  rational  discernment  of  the  laws 
of  our  higher  life,  and  an  obedience  to  them.  / 


88  v  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

But  if  man  was  once  animal,  and  has  grown  up  into 
man,  when  and  how  did  the  soul  come  in  ?  some  of  you 
may  like  to  ask.  Of  any  soul  that  is  a  distinct  and 
separate  entity,  apart  from  the  conscious  mental  and 
spiritual  life  ;  a  soul  that  a  man  has,  and  that  can  be 
saved,  apart  from  his  mental  and  moral  condition,  accord- 
ing to  the  teaching  of  the  popular  revivalists  ;  a  soul  that 
is  in  a  man  and  yet  not  simply  and  wholly  himself,  —  of 
such  a  soul  I  must  confess  that  I  know  nothing  whatever. 
And  if  any  one  is  disposed  to  be  troubled  on  this  point  in 
connection  with  evolution,  perhaps  it  is  well  to  remind 
them  that  they  will  find  no  relief  in  Genesis.  Moses 
knows  nothing  of  any  such  soul.  The  Hebrew  word  for 
the  soul  of  Adam,  and  for  the  souls,  or  life,  of  the  animals, 
is  precisely  the  same.  When  it  is  written,  "  The  Elohim 
breathed  into  his  nostrils,  and  he  became  a  living  soul," 
it  would  be  just  as  correct  to  say,  "  He  became  alive,  or  a 
living  being  or  animal."  There  is  no  hint  that  his  soul 
was  any  different  from  that  of  any  other  creature's  soul. 
This  does  not  touch  the  question  of  the  nature  of  the 
soul,  or  of  immortality  :  it  only  shows  that  there  is  no 
more  light  in  Genesis  than  there  is  in  evolution.  , 

It  was  a  favorite  topic  of  discussion  among  the  school- 
men of  the  middle  ages,  as  to  whether  we  derived  our 
souls  by  birth  from  Adam,  or  whether  they  came  direct 
from  heaven  at  every  separate  birth ;  but  I  have  never 
heard  that  it  resulted  in  any  thing  more  profitable  than 
that  other  question,  which  they  also  expended  their  wits 
upon,  as  to  whether  our  hair  and  finger-nails,  that  we  now 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  89 

cut  off,  will  or  will  not  form  a  part  of  the  resurrection 
body. 

Evolution  simply  takes  man  as  it  finds  him,  traces  his 
origin,  studies  his  nature,  and,  looking  along  the  line  of 
his  development,  attempts  to  forecast  his  probable  future. 
If  it  cannot  say  as  broadly  as  Paul  does,  "  Now  are  we 
[all  men]  the  sons  of  God,"  it  can  say,  "  Now  are  all  who 
live  after  the  law  of  their  higher  nature  the  sons  of  God." 
Man,  then,  once  animal,  has  climbed  up  into  the  possi- 
bility of  sonship  to  the  Highest ;  and  in  many  cases  he 
has  made  the  possibility  a  fact.  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be;"  but  along  the  line  of  knowledge, 
obedience,  and  struggle,  there  stretches  before  humanity 
an  ascending  pathway  up  to  God,  bright  and  grand  as  the 
sloping  beams  of  light  that  bridge  the  deeps  of  space 
from  the  horizon's  edge  up  to  the  unbearable  glory  of  the 
rising  sun.  Here  lies  the  way  of  religious  progress,  phil- 
anthropic labor,  and  all  reform.  It  is  to  be  trodden  by 
all  those  who  subdue  the  animal,  and  climb  up  into  the 
mind  and  the  soul.  And  the  true  help  for  our  fellows  is 
to  be  offered  in  assisting  them  up,  step  by  step,  along  this 
same  stairway  of  attainment.  No  man  can  be  suddenly 
"  converted  "  into  it,  any  more  than  ignorance  can  be  sud- 
denly converted  into  knowledge.  One  may  be  suddenly 
waked  up  to  the  fact  of  his  ignorance,  and  may  suddenly 
determine  to  go  to  school ;  but  the  way  of  learning  is 
long,  and  so  is  the  way  of  all  progress. 

In  the  light  of  human  nature,  as  thus  revealed,  may  be 
seen  the  futility  of  some  of  the  present  prominent  notions 


90  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


about  reform,  as  in  matters  of  temperance,  social  vice, 
and  the  repression  of  crime.  You  cannot  legislate  char- 
acter. The  most  that  laws  can  do  is  to  help  on  suitable 
conditions  for  the  development  of  character. 

I  have  purposely  passed  by  the  question  of  a  future 
life  for  man.      It  only  remains  for  me  to  glance  at  the 
possibilities  of  his  earthly  outlook,   as  hinted  by  evolu- 
tion.    Man  was  first  an  animal,  without  shelter  or  fire  or 
clothing  or  weapons  or  domestic  utensils  of    any  kind. 
We  can  trace  him  to  the  time  when  he  fought  the  bear  for 
possession  of  his  cave.     His  first  weapon  was  a  club; 
then  he  discovered  fire,  and  so  was  able  to  mould  metals, 
and  manufacture  utensils  and  weapons.     All  the  forces  of 
nature  were  hostile  to  him,  because  he  was  ignorant  of 
their  laws,  and  so  was  constantly  transgressing  and  suffer- 
ing.     But  gradually  he   learned  to  obey  them,   and   so 
became  their  master.     When  he  obeyed  the  laws  of  the 
wind,  he  made  it  sail  his  boats ;  when  he  knew  the  laws  of 
water,  he  made  it  turn  his  mills ;  when  he  learned  the  use 
of   fire,  he  cleared  the  forests  and  discovered  manufac- 
tures :  to-day  he  has  made  conquest,  by  his  knowledge,  of 
immense  tracts  of  the  globe.     Lightning,  light,  heat,  mag- 
netism, chemical  forces,  are  all  become  his  servants.     He 
is  just  winning  his  crown  and  grasping  his  sceptre.     But 
though  we  call  ourselves  civilized,  we  can  see  enough  of 
the  yet  unattained  possibilities  of  man  and  the  earth  to 
make  us  feel  that  we  are    as  yet   only  in  the    morning 
twilight :  the  full  day  is  before  us  ;  conquests  await  us  in 
earth  and  air  and  sea.     Government  shall  be  perfected  ; 


THE  MAN  OF  EVOLUTION.  91 


crime  shall  be  outgrown  ;  most  of  the  diseases  from  which 
we  now  suffer  shall  be  abolished.  Accumulated  wealth, 
and  knowledge  of  the  yet  undiscovered  resources  of  the 
earth,  shall  solve  the  problems  of  hunger  and  cold  and 
want,  and  deliver  man  from  the  crushing  burdens  of  the 
mere  struggle  for  subsistence.  Then  man  will  be  free  to 
go  up  and  live  in  the  affections,  the  mind,  and  the  spirit. 
It  is  perfectly  within  the  scope  of  the  forces  and  laws 
now  at  work  about  us,  to  develop  on  earth  a  paradise  as 
much  fairer  than  Eden  as  the  noble  plans  and  works  of 
manhood  are  higher  and  better  than  the  dreams  of  the 
nursery.  Plato's  republic  and  More's  Utopia  are  onlyx 
hints  of  what  the  future  will  realize.  The  whole  earth  can/ 
be  made  a  garden,  and  human  life  upon  it  so  regulated  in 
accord  with  natural  laws  that  all  government  and  society 
and  individual  life  shall  run  as  noiselessly  and  harmoni- 
ously as  the  stars  move  in  the  sky.  Evil  and  pain  and v 
disease  will  be  outgrown.  J 

How  long  will  it  take  ?  Thousands  of  years.  But  God^ 
is  in  no  hurry,  having  eternity  to  work  in.  He  has  been/ 
millenniums  already,  in  developing  us  to  what  we  are; 
and  yet  we  are  only  on  the  threshold  of  what  is  not  only 
possible  but  probable.  The  future  stretches  out  a  road  so 
long,  that  those  who  stand  on  the  heights  of  the  ages  to 
come  may  look  back  and  think  of  human  history  from  the 
first  until  now,  as  we  think  of  the  first  mile  of  a  journey 
across  the  continent;  as  we  regard  the  time  from  Adam 
to  the  flood,  in  the  old  story. 

"  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God ; "  and  indeed 


92  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

"  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  But  the  scroll 
of  earth-life  that  God  is  unrolling  has  in  it  wonders  and 
surprises  of  good  and  beauty  and  glory  that  we  cannot 
now  even  imagine ;  but  we  may  safely  say  that  the  blos- 
som will  be  worthy  of  the  root  and  the  trunk. 


V. 

THE  DEVIL;    OR,   THE   NATURE  OF  EVIL. 

To  the  devil  has  been  popularly  attributed  the  author- 
ship of  all  human  ills.  I  propose,  therefore,  to  trace  in 
rapid  outline  the  more  important  phases  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  satanic  idea,  that  we  may  understand  how 
the  belief  has  risen  and  grown.  Then  I  shall  pass  to 
what  we  really  know  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  evil. 
A  knowledge  of  what  it  is  will  suggest  practical  measures 
for  controlling  or  escaping  it. 

Let  us  begin  by  trying  to  understand  the  condition  and 
state  of  mind  of  the  first  men  on  the  earth.  You  must 
imagine  yourselves  divested  of  every  thing  that  we  include 
under  the  term  "  civilization."  Not  only  must  you  men- 
tally blot  out  the  cities,  the  telegraphs,  the  railways,  the 
roads,  the  ships,  but  you  must  also  think  of  them  as  with- 
out houses,  without  even  the  simplest  domestic  imple- 
ments and  utensils,  without  any  knowledge  of  iron  or 
copper  or  other  metals  of  which  they  could  make  weapons 
for  their  defence.  They  had  no  clothing,  except  as  they 
could  strip  a  tree  of  its  bark,  or  rob  an  animal  of  its  skin. 

93 


94  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

They  possessed  no  knowledge  of  fire.  And  then  you 
must  not  only  strip  their  bodies  of  all  the  surroundings  of 
comfort :  you  must  also  strip  their  minds  of  knowledge, 
and  picture  them  in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  which  they 
knew  almost  nothing.  Hunger  gnawed  at  their  vitals, 
the  cold  chilled  and  destroyed  them,  the  thunder  scared, 
and  the  lightning  smote  them ;  the  earthquake,  the  storm, 
and  the  darkness  all  seemed  bent  on  their  destruction. 
Invisible  diseases  attacked  them,  and  mysterious  death 
snatched  away  one  after  another.  They  knew  nothing  of 
natural  laws,  or  of  how  a  generally  beneficent  force  might, 
because  of  their  ignorance  or  disobedience,  work  them 
incidental  injury.  So  they,  using  the  best  powers  of 
reason  they  possessed,  argued  that  all  these  things  were 
their  enemies.  And  as  they  had  no  idea  of  power  apart 
from  that  possessed  by  persons  like  themselves,  they 
attributed  personality  and  individual  life  to  all  the  forces 
about  them.  Winter  and  night  and  storm  and  lightning 
and  disease,  to  their  thought,  became  superhuman  beings, 
or  gods.  And  since  the  results  of  their  action  were  evil, 
so  far  as  they  could  see,  they  concluded  they  must  be 
malicious  gods,  inclined  not  to  help,  but  to  hurt  them. 
The  sun  and  the  light  and  the  blue  sky  were  kindly  and 
good  gods.  For  not  knowing,  as  we  know  to-day,  that  all 
these  apparently  evil  forces  were  the  result  of  the  sun, 
they  gave  him  credit  only  for  the  pleasant  effects  of  light 
and  warmth  which  they  could  see  him  produce.  But  the 
good  gods  of  light  and  comfort  were  afar  off  in  the  sky  ; 
while  the  bad  gods  of  cold  and  darkness  and  hunger  and 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE   OF  EVIL.        95 

death  were  right  about  them.  T^hus  the  first  religion  was 
one  almost  exclusively  of  fear.  " They  worshipped  theses- 
gods,  not  because  they  loved  them,  but  in  the  hope  that, 
by  gifts  and  prayers  and  honors,  they  might  gain  their 
favor,  or  induce  them  to  be  less  cruel.  Here,  then,  is  the 
germ-idea  of  the  devil.  He  was  born  of  the  logic  that 
argued  that  suffering  and  death  must  be  the  work  of  a 
wicked  being.  It  was  not  one  devil,  or  bad  god,  but  ^ 
thousand;  for  every  thing  that  seemed  to  possess  inde- 
pendent power  was  personified. 

In  the  Hindoo  religion,  though  almost  every  thing  was 
deified,  so  that  there  were  millions  of  gods,  they  yet  took 
one  step  ahead  of  the  philosophic  thought  of  primitive 
man.  They  generalized  the  forces  of  the  universe  under 
three  grand  gods,  —  Brahma  the  creator,  Vishnu  the  pre- 
server, and  Siva  the  destroyer.  The  latter,  who  may  be 
called  the  Hindoo  devil,  was  figured  with  a  rope  for 
strangling  evil-doers,  a  necklace  of  skulls,  and  earrings  of 
serpents.  All  evils  were  of  his  doing.  And,  as  very 
significant  of  the  fact  that  popular  worship  concerns  itself 
much  more  about  escaping  evil  than  it  does  in  getting 
good,  Siva  is  the  most  worshipped  of  all  the  Hindoo  gods. 
The  idea  seems  to  be  to  buy  escape  from  his  evil  power. 

Zoroaster,  the  religious  teacher  of  Persia,  took  one 
step  more  in  advance.  His  religion  was  based  in  a 
shadowy  kind  of  monotheism ;  but  practically  the  uni- 
verse was  divided  between  two  gods,  a  bad  and  a  good 
one,  who  were  supposed  to  be  in  everlasting  antagonism. 
Ahura-Mazda   was   the    god    of    light   and   good,    while 


96  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Ahriman  was  the  god  of  darkness  and  evil.  They  were 
engaged  in  a  world-wide  conflict  very  much  as,  during  the 
middle  ages,  Christ  and  the  devil  were  supposed  to  be. 
But,  unlike  the  Christian  teaching,  it  was  believed  that 
sometime  Ahura-Mazda  would  triumph  even  to  the  utter 
destruction  of  all  evil,  and  the  redemption  of  Ahriman 
himself. 

It  is  worth  your  while  to  notice,  in  passing,  how  the 
gods  of  an  old  religion  become  the  devils  in  a  new. 
When  a  new  and  better  god  got  the  supremacy,  it  was 
not  supposed  that  the  other  gods  were  dead  :  they  were 
simply  conquered  and  kept  in  subjection.  In  this  condi- 
tion they  kept  up  a  chronic  rebellion,  and  did  all  they 
could  to  injure  their  conqueror  and  his  kingdom.  Thus 
the  devils  of  Zoroaster  were  the  gods  of  the  older  Hin- 
doo religion.  This  is  indicated  in  the  very  word  "devil." 
Deva,  from  which  the  word  "  devil "  is  derived,  once 
meant  the  good  gods.  The  same  use  remains  to-day; 
for  "  divine "  is  only  the  old  word  deva  in  its  modern 
dress.  So  "  devil  "  and  "  divine  "  are  two  words  coming: 
from  the  same  root.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Latin  deus 
and  our  English  "  deity."  In  like  manner  the  old  Pagan 
gods  became  the  devils  of  early  and  mediaeval  Chris- 
tianity ;  except  when  some  infallible  pope  put  one  of 
them  into  the  calendar  by  mistake,  and  made  him  a  saint. 

In  the  classic  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  there  was 
no  devil ;  for  the  gods  were  bad  enough  to  get  along 
without  one.  The  deities  of  Olympus  were  simply  human, 
except  as  to  power  and    life ;  and   they  helped  or  hurt 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE   OF  EVIL.        97^ 

humanity,  as  all  tyrants  do,  according  to  freak  or  favor- 
itism, or  as  moved  by  gifts  or  honors. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and 
trace  the  genesis  of  the  devil  here.  There  is  no  hint,  forw 
ages  after,  that  the  serpent  in  Eden  was  the  devil,  or  that 
he  had  any  thing  to  do  with  him.  Jehovah,  at  first,  as^ 
being  the  one  God,  the  Creator  of  all  things,  is  regarded 
as  the  author  of  both  good  and  evil,  dark  and  light.  In 
Isaiah  he  is  represented  as  boldly  assuming  the  whole 
responsibility  to  himself :  "  I  form  the  light,  and  create 
darkness ;  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil.  I,  Jehovah,  do 
all  these  things."  (Isa.  xlv.  7.)  This,  of  course,  could 
not  be  true  if  evil  originated  with  the  devil.  In  other 
places,  the  agency  of  the  devil  appears  springing  up,  and 
dividing  the  evil  work  of  the  world  with  Jehovah.  When^' 
David  committed  the  supposed  crime  of  taking  a  census 
of  his  people,  it  is  said  in  one  place  that  Jehovah  tempted 
him  to  do  it,  and  in  another  place  that  Satan  did  it.  The 
belief  here  is  divided,  and  begins  to  waver.  The  firstJ 
time  that  Satan  appears  clearly  outlined  is  in  the  book 
of  Job.  But  he  is  not  at  all  the  Satan  of  theology,  out^ 
cast  from  heaven,  the  king  of  hell,  and  the  ravager  of 
the  earth.  He  is  a  member  of  the  heavenly  court,  a  sort 
of  prosecuting  attorney  for  Jehovah,  who  goes  forth  only 
on  the  divine  permission,  and  to  execute  the  divine  will. 
But  after  the  Jewish  captivity,  and  the  national  contact 
with  Persian  life  and  thought,  the  Zoroastrian  Ahriman 
comes  bodily  into  Jewish  theology,  and  the  devil  is  full 
born. 

7 


98  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

To  account  for  the  existence  of  evil  at  the  dawn  of 
creation,  the  devil  must  be  made  older  than  the  world ; 
and  hence  arose  the  legend  of  a  rebellion  in  heaven,  and 
the  casting-out  of  Satan  and  his  followers,  a  third  part  of 
all  the  angels.  To  avenge  himself  for  his  celestial  defeat, 
he  turns  his  malice  against  the  new  creation  and  the  new 
being,  man,  who  was  to  take  the  place  in  heaven  from 
which  he  had  been  cast  out.  Then  arose  the  idea  that 
the  old  serpent  was  only  Satan  in  disguise ;  and  that, 
through  the  tempting  and  fall  of  man,  the  devil  "  brought 
death  into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe."  The  devil  was 
thus  supposed  to  have  become  the  conqueror,  lord,  and 
rightful  owner  of  the  world.  This  was  his  kingdom.  So 
ingrained  did  this  thought  become  that  even  in  the  Church 
Prayer-Book  to-day  the  organized  Church  is  God's  king- 
dom, and  the  world  is  Satan's ;  and  becoming  a  Christian 
is  "  renouncing  "  loyalty  to  "  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil,"  and  taking  Christ  as  king.  So  perfectly  was  it 
believed  that  Satan  had  come  into  ownership  of  earth 
and  man,  that  the  early  doctrine  of  the  work  of  Christ 
was  shaped  by  it.  Jesus  made  a  bargain  with  Satan,  by 
which  he  surrendered  himself  into  his  hands  as  a  ransom 
for  the  deliverance  of  humanity ;  and  as  Christ  had 
been  his  rival  in  heaven,  he  was  willing  to  accept  the  pur- 
chase. But  Christ,  being  divine,  was  able  to  outwit  the 
devil,  cheat  him  out  of  possession  of  himself,  and  save 
humanity  into  the  bargain.  Such  were  the  early  Christian 
ideas  of  God  and  Jesus  and  Satan.  You  can  judge  how 
worthy  they  are  of  our  respect. 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE  OF  EVIL.        99 

Throughout  the  middle  ages,  the  devil  was  supposed  to 
be  everywhere.  His  armies  camped  over  all  the  earth. 
Calamities,  sickness,  deformity,  earthquake,  storm,  down 
even  to  the  most  trivial  perplexities,  were  attributed  to  his 
agency.  Every  man  was  surrounded  by  devils,  as  a  swim- 
mer was  surrounded  by  the  sea.  Evil  thoughts  were  his 
whispers,  and  evil  deeds  were  done  at  his  instigation.  In 
short,  whatever  was  evil  was  the  work  of  the  devil.  Sin 
was  a  new  element  or  quality  that  came  into  human 
nature,  through  his  agency,  at  the  fall.  Thus  it  became  a 
part  of  the  life  of  every  new  child  born  into  the  world. 
By  this  sin,  which  linked  man  with  Satan,  he  was  under 
the  perpetual  wrath  of  God,  and  condemned  forever. 
The  Church  ordinances,  rituals,  days,  —  these  were  the 
machinery  of  Christ  for  the  expulsion  of  sin,  or  the  deliv- 
erance of  man  from  its  power. 

The  devil  has  been  the  mainspring  of  theology,  and 
hell  the  corner-stone  of  the  universe.  So  important  a 
personage  has  he  become,  that  one  minister  asserts,  as 
against  Mr.  Conway's  lecture,  that  "  if  there  is  no  devil 
there  is  no  truth  in  the  Bible."  As  if  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  must  look  to  the  devil  for  support !  And  another 
declares  that  "the  devil  constitutes  an  important  element 
in  the  means  of  grace  established  for  the  salvation  of 
sinners ; "  though,  since  he  gets  the  largest  part  of  them, 
one  would  suppose  that  it  was  their  damnation,  and  not 
their  salvation,  of  which  he  was  an  "  important  element." 
I  suppose  this  minister  means  that  he  needs  the  devil  as 
a  scarecrow,  to  frighten  people  into  heaven  ;   though,  by 


ioo  M  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  Church's  own  confession,  he  has  proved  a  failure  in 
this  direction. 

Now,  it  is  perfectly  natural  that  the  ignorance  of 
primitive  man  should  invent  the  devil  as  a  part  of  his 
mythology.  It  was  the  simplest  explanation  of  the  facts 
of  evil,  as  they  then  appeared.  But  it  is  now  being  seen 
by  all  earnest  and  independent  thinkers,  that  the  theory 
of  the  devil  must  take  its  place  with  alchemy,  the  Ptole- 
maic theory  of  the  universe,  and  other  beliefs  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  world  has  outgrown.  The  devil  only 
complicates,  instead  of  simplifying  or  explaining,  the 
origin  and  nature  of  evil.  If  there  is  any  devil,  he  either*^ 
made  himself,  or  God  made  him.  If  he  made  himself,  he 
is  an  independent  deity ;  if  God  made  him,  or  permitted 
him,  then  God  is  the  author  of  evil :  so  the  devil  is  no 
relief. 

Let  us,  then,  turn  away  from  these  frightful  dreams  of 
the  past,  and  look  at  the  facts  of  the  world,  so  far  as  we 
know  them.     I  think  we  shall  find,  in  the  light  of  evolu- 
tion, a  pathway  out  of   our  difficulties.     What  does  ourV 
real  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  the  world  and  the  progress 
of  life  tell  us  about  the  nature  of  evil  ?     It  denies  not  only 
the  existence  of  any  devil,  but  any  necessity  for  him.     It 
denies  the  real  existence  of  evil ;  that  is,  it  denies  that 
evil  is  a  real  entity,  a  substance,  either  in  the  world  about 
us,  or,   as  sin,  in  man.     Evil  is  simply  a  temporary  and^ 
passing  condition.     To  put  the  whole  thing  in  one  word, 
all  evil   is   nothing   more  nor  less   than   maladjustment/ 
The  devil,  and  sin,  ar.d  sorrow,  and  calamity,  and  sick- 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE  OF  EVIL.       101 

ness,  and  tears,  and  death,  all  resolve  themselves  into  this 
one  word.  I  am  aware  that  as  thus  stated  the  sentence 
may  convey  to  you  little  meaning;  but  I  wished  to  put 
the  whole  thing  into  one  word,  as  an  acorn  contains  an 
oak-tree.  And  now  I  will  go  on  to  explain  and  illustrate. 
If  you  can  find  any  form  of  evil  that  cannot  be  wrapped 
up  in  the  word  "maladjustment,"  then  you  will  find  what 
all  my  thinking  has  failed  to  discover. 

At  the  outset  of  this  explanation,  notice  the  meaning 
of  life.  Life  means  simply  this  :  A  real  being,  man  or 
woman,  in  the  midst  of,  surrounded  by,  and  related  to, 
the  real  facts  of  the  universe.  When  he  is  rightly  related 
or  adjusted  to  these  facts,  then  the  man  finds  safety, 
health,  happiness,  and  peace.  When  wrongly  related,  or 
maladjusted,  he  finds  disturbance,  pain,  calamity,  sick- 
ness, and  death.  This  one  principle,  I  believe,  will 
explain  all  evil,  from  the  physical  up  through  intellectual 
and  moral  to  the  spiritual.  Let  us  now  start  out  with  it 
on  our  search,  and  see. 

I.  Physical  Evil. 

How  came  it  about  that  the  first  men  of  the  world 
interpreted  all  the  great  forces  of  the  world  as  being 
mainly  evil  ?  It  was  simply  because  of  their  ignorance 
and  helplessness.  Not  understanding  the  laws  of  nature, 
they  were  continually  breaking  them,  and  so  suffering  the 
penalty  of  broken  law.  The  lightning,  the  storm,  the 
earthquake,  the  winds,  the  poisonous  vapors  of  swamps, 
all  these  were  continually  working  them  harm  because 
they  had  not  enough  knowledge  of  them  to  be  an  ade- 


102  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


quate  defence.  They  were  constantly  getting  into  wrong 
relations  to  these  things.  The  great  forces  of  nature 
move  on  as  resistlessly  as  a  train  of  cars  under  full  head- 
way. If  you  get  aboard  the  cars,  the  mighty  power  of 
the  steam  will  speed  you  smoothly  on  your  journey :  if 
you  get  across  the  track,  the  same  mighty  power  will  crush 
and  mangle  and  kill.  The  whole  thing  depends  on  your 
relation  to  the  force  of  the  steam.  Right  adjustment 
makes  it  your  servant :  maladjustment  makes  it  your  ruin. 
In  the  light  of  this  principle,  let  us  consider  more  directly 
some  of  the  prominent  causes  of  physical  evil. 

It  has  been  the  popular  belief  of  the  Church  and  of 
all  Christendom,  for  the  last  two  thousand  years,  that 
earthquakes  and  tempests  and  floods  and  volcanic  erup- 
tions and  pestilences  and  diseases  and  death  were  all 
either  the  spiteful  work  of  the  devil,  or  else  the  vengeful 
judgments  of  God  for  human  sin.  Sometimes  the  two 
ideas  were  combined  ;  that  is,  it  was  thought  that  God, 
being  angry,  permitted  the  devil  to  bring  these  evils  upon 
men.  This  belief  was  carried  so  far  that  it  was  even  held 
to  be  an  impious  resistance  to  God's  will,  when  medical 
men  endeavored  to  counteract  the  natural  sweep  of  a 
pestilence,  or  to  alleviate  human  suffering.  Within  a 
hundred  years,  the  world  has  witnessed  the  advocates  of 
the  popular  religion  roused  into  a  storm  of  opposition 
against  vaccination  as  a  preventive  of  small-pox.  Small- 
pox was  a  judgment  of  God ;  and  it  was  wicked  to  stand 
in  its  way.  And,  so  late  as  forty  years  ago,  the  use  of 
chloroform   was   opposed   because   it  was  thought  to  be 


— _ 

THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE   OF  EVIL.       103 


impiety  to  fight  against  the  pain  that  God  had  sent  as  a 
punishment  for  sin.     Now,  let  us  look  at  it.  and  see. 

Earthquakes  and  volcanic  eruptions  are  a  part  of  the\ 
natural  and  necessary  process  in  the  development  of  the 
globe.  The  wrinkling  and  tremors  of  the  earth's  crust,  in, 
the  process  of  the  earth's  cooling  from  its  original  molten 
condition,  are  as  necessary  and  natural  as  the  wrinkling 
and  cracking  of  the  surface  of  a  pan  of  lard  when  it  is 
cooling  in  the  farmer's  kitchen.  It  is  precisely  the  same 
thing,  only  on  a  larger  scale.  And  volcanoes  are  the 
natural  result  of  the  same  working.  Now,  when,  and  vaS 
what  sense,  are  they  calamities?  When  men,  through 
ignorance  of  these  natural  laws,  build  their  cities  or  homes 
in  the  earthquake's  track,  or  on  a  volcano's  side,  then 
there  come  such  calamities  as  that  of  the  overthrow  of 
Lisbon,  or  the  burial  of  Pompeii.  These  great  convul- 
sions are,  on  the  whole,  beneficent,  for  the  good  of  the 
earth ;  the  incidental  evils  are  the  result  of  a  maladjust- 
ment of  human  relations  to  them.  So  soon  as  men  know 
the  laws,  and  adjust  themselves  to  their  working,  the 
power  to  injure  is  taken  away.  Take  the  case  of  floods^ 
or  the  breaking  of  a  great  reservoir,  like  that  in  Western 
Massachusetts  a  couple  of  years  ago.  When  men  know 
enough  to  build  out  of  the  way  of  floods,  and  when  the 
public  guardians  know  enough  and  care  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  cupidity  of  contractors  from  slighting  their  work, 
then  these  "judgments  of  God"  will  be  found  easily 
preventable.  It  is  a  little  curious  that  God  has  ceased 
sending  his  lightning  as  a  punishment  for  sin  just  as  fast 


104  '  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


and  as  far  as  Franklin's  invention  of  lightning-rods  has 
been  properly  applied.  Right  adjustment  to  electricity 
has  disarmed  it.  When  a  ship  is  wrecked  at  sea,  we  know"** 
that,  in  every  case,  it  is  for  lack  of  proper  adjustment  be- 
tween the  vessel,  and  the  powers  of  wind  and  wave.  A 
proper  knowledge  of,  and  a  compliance  with,  the  laws  of 
navigation,  would  make  wrecks  almost  an  unheard-of 
thing.  Pestilences,  like  the  cholera,  the  plague,  the  / 
yellow-fever,  are  perfectly  within  the  control  of  human 
intelligence.  These  punishments  come  not  on  sinners,  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  confine  themselves 
exclusively  to  those  cities  and  lands  that  disregard  sani- 
tary laws.  And  every  intelligent  physician  knows  that 
almost  all  diseases  are  preventable,  and  that  none  ever 
come  except  as  the  natural  and  necessary  result  of  the 
disregard  of  physical  laws.  In  other  words,  all  disease  is 
maladjustment  between  man  and  nature.  He  who  builds 
his  home  beside  a  malarious  swamp  may  be  ever  so  pious, 
but  he  will  shake  with  chills  and  fever  just  the  same. 
The  wicked  man  who  knows  enough  to  keep  out  of  such 
places  will  escape.  That  is,  transgression  of  physical 
law  brings  physical  evil ;  and  what  you  do  or  do  not  do 
in  spiritual  matters  does  not  touch  this  fact.  Fire  is  one 
of  the  grandest  blessings  of  the  race ;  but  if  Mrs.  O'Leary 
does  not  know  any  better  than  to  put  a  kerosene-lamp 
where  her  cow  will  kick  it  over,  the  laws  of  fire  are  not 
going  to  stop  :  Chicago  will  crumble  into  ashes.  A  man's 
house  tumbles  about  his  ears  ;  not  because  gravitation  is 
not   a   good    thing,   but   because   he   did  not   adjust   his 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE  OF  EVIL.       105 

timbers  and  his  bricks  to  the  laws  of  gravitation.  And 
so  you  may  take  any  illustration  you  please,  and  you  will 
find  the  same  thing  true  :  all  physical  evil  is  maladjust- 
ment between  man  and  his  conditions.  Increasing  knowl- 
edge is  disarming  these  enemies  of  humanity  more  and 
more.  And  not  only  are  they  being  disarmed :  knowledge 
of  and  obedience  to  these  great  laws  is  turning  them  into 
gigantic  servants  of  the  welfare  of  man.  The  sea,  which 
the  ancients  regarded  as  a  waste  of  useless  waters,  —  the 
separator  of  nations,  the  destroyer  of  those  who  braved 
its  perils,  and  which  even  the  Bible  speaks  of  as  an  evil 
to  be  done  away  in  "  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  "  — 
"  there  shall  be  no  more  sea,"  — this  is  now  known  to  be 
the  life  of  the  world  ;  and  knowledge  of  its  laws  is  turn- 
ing it  into  highways  of  human  progress.  The  lightning 
has  turned  mail-carrier ;  and  all  the  great  forces  are 
being  harnessed  to  the  car  of  human  advancement. 
There  is  not  a  single  physical  evil  on  the  globe,  that 
future  knowledge  may  not  turn  to  man's  advantage  and 
uplifting. 

Death,  the  great  evil,  as  men  have  thought,  and  which^ 
was    supposed  to  be   the  result  of   Adam's  sin,  is   now 
known  to  be  as  natural  and  necessary  as  life.     It  existed/ 
ages  before  Adam  is  supposed  to  have  been  created.    The 
evils  of   it  are  only  incidents  and  accompaniments  that 
human  advancement  will  leave  behind.     The  time   may^ 
and  will  come  when  men  will  die  as  unconsciously  and 
easily  as    now  they  are   born.     In  fact,   it  will  only  be 
another  and  a  higher  birth.  * 


io6     v  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

The  devil  of  the  physical  world,  then,  is  only  ignorant  \ 
maladjustment.    This  is  the  great  dragon ;  and  knowledge 
is  thi  S*.  George  that  will  overthrow  and  slay  him.  y 

II.  Intellectual  Evil. 

I  pass  now  to  say  that  the  same  is  true  of  intellectual 
evil.  This  calls  for  no  prolonged  discussion.  Its  simple 
statement  will  be  its  sufficient  proof.  The  only  evil  of  theN 
intellect  is  error,  a  lack  of  true  knowledge  of  the  real 
facts  of  the  universe.  The  only  and  the  sufficient  cure 
for  this  is  knowledge.  The  straight  pathway  to  this  / 
knowledge  is  the  free  and  unhindered  study  that  cares 
only  to  find  the  truth.  This  is  why  I  claim  and  defend 
the  right  of  free  inquiry.  Nothing  is  safe  but  truth  ;  and 
truth  is  always  safe.  And  I  can  conceive  no  interest  that 
any  man  can  have  to  do  any  thing  else  but  find  the  truth, 
and  obey  it ;  for  truth  is  God.  The  man  who  builds  on 
it  builds  on  the  rock.  The  rains  may  descend,  the  floods 
may  come,  the  wind  may  blow  and  beat  upon  his  house : 
but  it  will  stand ;  for  it  is  founded  on  a  rock.  Any  thing 
but  truth  is  sand  ;  and  whoever  builds  on  it  will  live 
only  to  see  the  ruin  of  his  fall. 

III.  Moral  Evil. 

As  our  third  point,  consider  the  same  principle  of 
maladjustment  in  relation  to  moral  evil.  The  unfolding 
history  of  humanity  reveals  nothing  more  plainly  than  that 
there  are  great  and  universal  laws  of  righteousness  run- 
ning through  all  the  world.  These  laws  are  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  the  all-inclusive  principles  of  equity  or  just 
relationships  in  which  men  stand  to  each  other.     Within 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE   OF  EVIL.       107 


i/ 


these  lines  or  laws  of  right  is  moral  goodness.  Breaking 
over  these  lines  or  laws  is  moral  injury  and  destruction. 
Here,  as  everywhere,  "  sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law.y 
Now,  I  wish  you  to  carefully  separate  in  thought  this 
realm  of  morals,  of  righteousness,  from  the  intellectual 
and  physical  realms.  Breaking  physical  law  brings  phys-\ 
ical  evil;  breaking  intellectual  laws  brings  intellectual 
evil,  or  error;  breaking  the  laws  of  righteousness  brings 
moral  evil,  or  the  injury  of  the  moral  nature.  These/ 
three  realms  may  run  into  each  other.  As,  for  example, 
when  a  man  breaks  the  moral  law  of  his  relationship  to 
another  by  some  sensual  crime,  he  at  the  same  time  may 
break  a  physical  law  of  his  body;  but  the  physical  evil 
results,  not  from  breaking  the  spiritual  law,  but  from 
breaking  the  physical.  A  man  may  be  a  thief,  or  cheat 
in  his  business,  and  it  have  no  effect  on  his  body.  He 
will  be  in  health  so  long  as  he  obeys  the  laws  of  his 
body,  however  much  he  may  break  the  higher  laws.  The 
farmer  may  swear  and  cheat ;  but  this  will  not  affect  his 
potato  or  wheat  crops,  if  he  is  a  good  farmer.  While 
another  farmer  may  be  ever  so  noble  and  true  in  his 
relations  to  his  fellow-men  ;  still  he  will  go  hungry  if  he 
does  not  manage  his  farming  wisely.  The  higher  moral 
evils,  then,  result  from  disregard  of  the  higher  moral  laws 
of  equity  in  which  we  stand  to  God  and  our  fellow-men. 
Thus  society  may  be  full  of  people  who  are  successful  in 
their  outward  circumstances,  because  they  know  and  obey 
the  laws  of  health  and  of  business.  They  may  be  suc- 
cessful in  the  pursuit  of    the  scientific    and  philosophic 


ioS  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

truths  of  the  world,  because  they  obey  the  laws  of  this 
search ;  and  at  the  same  time  they  may  be  so  out  of 
harmony,  of  right  relationships,  with  the  spiritual  laws  of 
righteousness,  that  in  this  department  of  their  being  all  is 
only  wreck  and  ruin.  A  man  will  be  a  good  painter,  if  he 
obeys  the  laws  of  his  art ;  but  this  will  not  teach  him 
music.  He  may  be  a  fine  mathematician  ;  but  this  will 
not  teach  him  sculpture.  So,  if  one  is  to  be  morally  and 
spiritually  developed  and  complete,  he  must  recognize 
and  obey  the  higher  and  finer  laws  of  his  higher  rela- 
tionships. When  evolution  has  carried  man  high  enough, 
this  spiritual  realm  of  relations  will  be  as  real  to  him 
as  is  now  the  physical ;  and  the  pang  of  pain  following  a 
breaking  of  one  of  these  finer  laws  of  thinking  and  feel- 
ing will  be  as  keen  and  real  as  is  now  the  burning  that 
follows  the  putting  of  a  finger  into  the  fire. 

Moral  evil,  then,  is  only  moral  maladjustment,  —  a 
man  getting  out  of  right  moral  relationships  to  God  or  his 
fellow-men  ;  and  the  cure  for  evil  here  is  parallel  to  the 
cure  for  all  other  evils.  Man  universally  desires  his  own 
welfare,  that  which  is  for  his  good  ;  and  when  he  gets 
wise  enough  to  know  that  obeying  the  divine  laws  must 
always  be  for  his  good,  then  the  whole  force  of  self- 
interest  even  will  be  turned  toward  doing  right.  Man 
knows  it  now  concerning  physical  evils.  He  does  not 
voluntarily  seek  them.  They  come  through  ignorance  or 
weakness  or  carelessness  ;  or  sometimes  he  braves  them 
for  the  sake  of  what  he  thinks  a  larger  good.  He  is 
beginning  to  learn  it  concerning  intellectual  evil,  or  error. 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE   OF  EVIL.       109^ 

He  will  one  day  become  wise  enough  to  know  that  it  is 
always  safe  and  for  his  interest  to  find  and  follow  the 
truth.  But  he  has  as  yet  learned  very  little  of  the  same 
great  principle  as  applied  to  moral  relations.  I  think  no 
man  ever  does  wrong  at  first,  unless  he  has  come  to  think 
it  good  for  him,  for  his  interest  at  the  time.  This  is 
always  a  blunder  ;  but  he  does  not  know  it  yet.  For  it  is 
for  no  man's  real  interest  to  do  wrong.  But  the  selfish 
hunger  is  strong,  and  his  moral  sense  is  weak  and  blind. 
The  sense  of  duty  is  only  partially  developed.  Habit 
grows  until  it  becomes  disease  ;  and  so  the  current  sweeps 
him  away.  But  a  proper  knowledge  of  moral  laws,  at 
the  start,  would  have  kept  him  out  of  the  current. 

Knowledge,  then,  is  the  devil-killer,  and  the  extermi-^ 
nator  of  evil.  It  is  often  objected  to  this  teaching  (it  is,^ 
indeed,  the  stock-argument  of  religious  newspapers),  that 
many  educated  men  are  criminals,  such  as  Ruloff  and 
Green  and  Prof.  Webster,  the  murderers ;  and  therefore 
it  is  said  that  education  cannot  save  men  from  sin.  But 
a  fatal  fallacy  underlies  the  objection.  It  is  not  claimed 
that  physical  education  will  save  from  any  thing  but  phys- 
ical evils.  Knowledge  of  scientific  and  philosophic  prin- 
ciples will  only  save  from  errors  in  their  peculiar  realm. 
It  is  moral  education,  a  true  and  adequate  knowledge  of 
moral  laws  and  human  well-being  as  related  to  these,  that 
saves  from  moral  evil.  Ruloff  and  Webster  and  Green 
were  moral  fools.  They  blundered  concerning  the  great 
moral  relations  in  which  they  stood,  and  mistook  their 
own  real  welfare,  as  well  as  the  rights  of  others.     When 


no   *  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

men  are  morally  wise  enough,  they  will  know  it  is  always 
best  to  do  right. 

The  perfect  humanity  will  come,  then,  when  there  is  a\ 
complete  knowledge  of  human  relationships,  and  a  com- 
plete obedience  to  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  laws 
of  God.  y 

God,  then,  is  not  the  author  of  evil.  It  is  only  human\ 
maladjustment  to  laws  that,  when  known  and  kept,  are 
the  true  servants  and  the  mighty  helpers  of  humanity. 
The  devil  is  a  dream  of  the  night  and  darkness  of  the 
past.  Let  him  be  relegated  to  the  museum  of  theological/ 
curiosities,  mummies,  and  skeletons,  that  the  coming  ages 
will  study  to  find  out  the  world's  thoughts  that  have 
passed  away.  But  meantime  remember  that  unkept  laws 
are  still  capable  of  doing  the  works  of  destruction  and 
sorrow  and  ruin  that  have  been  credited  to  the  devil  in 
all  time.  If  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  calamities 
come,  it  will  be  small  comfort  to  you  to  know  that  your 
own  ignorance  or  carelessness  is  the  devil  that  brings 
them.  But  in  this  destruction  of  the  devil,  and  of  a 
wrong-doing  God,  we  get  the  grand  inspiration  and  the 
hope  that  helps  us  face  the  future  with  good  heart  and 
tireless  endeavor.  The  way  out  and  up  being  seen,  and  a 
glimpse  of  light  being  visible  as  a  herald  of  the  dawn, 
we  "  thank  God,  and  take  courage."  Let  our  hope  sing 
itself  in  the  lines  of  Tennyson  :  — 

"  O,  yet  we  trust  that  somehow  good 
Will  be  the  final  goal  of  ill, 
To  pangs  of  nature,  sins  of  will, 
Defects  of  doubt,  and  taints  of  blood  : 


THE  DEVIL;    OR,    THE  NATURE  OF  EVIL.       Ill 

"  That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet ; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete  ; 

"That  not  a  worm  is  cloven  in  vain  ; 
That  not  a  moth  with  vain  desire 
Is  shrivelled  in  a  fruitless  fire, 
Or  but  subserves  another's  gain. 


m  I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last — far  off —  at  last,  to  all, 
And  every  winter  change  to  spring." 


VI. 

THE  EVOLUTION   OF  CONSCIENCE. 

You  all  remember  the  story  of  the  boy  Theodore 
Parker ;  how,  when  out  in  the  field  one  day,  he  lifted  a 
stick  to  strike  a  turtle,  but  stood  startled,  and  holding  the 
stick  suspended  in  the  air,  because  he  seemed  to  hear 
a  voice  distinctly  saying,  "It  is  wrong."  On  returning 
home,  he  asked  his  mother  what  it  meant;  and  she  replied, 
"  It  was  the  voice  of  God  in  your  soul."  And  then  she 
went  on  to  explain  that,  if  he  always  listened  to  and 
followed  it,  it  would  guide  him  in  the  way  of  right ;  but, 
if  not,  it  would  fade  out,  and  leave  him  in  darkness  and 
error.  Now,  this  might  all  be  true  with  the  conscience 
of  the  boy  of  Theodore  Parker's  mother ;  for  she  was 
exceptionally  intelligent  and  religious.  But  a  little  obser- 
vation would  have  discovered  some  remarkable  exceptions 
in  the  case  of  other  boys  in  the  neighborhood.  Many  of 
them  would  have  struck  every  tortoise  they  came  across, 
or  have  put  coals  on  their  backs  to  see  them  run,  and 
never  have  heard  any  voice  of  God  say  any  thing  about 
it.     What   Theodore    Parker   thought   a   sin,   they  would 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  113 


• 


have  declared  to  be  only  jolly  fun.  What  I  wish  to  hint 
is  simply  this  :  that  this  conscience,  whatever  it  be,  is  noA 
uniform  in  its  utterances,  and  does  not  declare  any  gen- 
eral law  of  action.  It  tells  one  person  that  a  thing  is 
wronp- ;  it  tells  another  that  it  is  right ;  it  tells  a  third 
nothing  about  it.  ' 

These  words  of  Mrs.  Parker  undoubtedly  express  what 
has   been   the   popular   doctrine   of    Christendom.     Con- 
science has   been    supposed  to  be  a  direct  intuition   of 
right,  or  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul  telling  a  person 
what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong.     But  let  us  look  a 
little  over  the  world,  and  see  if  we  can  still  hold  this 
belief.     The  first  thing  that  we  observe  is  that  the  utter- 
ances of  conscience  in  different  parts  of  the  world  not 
only  are  not  all  alike,  but  that  they  are  even  contradictory. 
Hardly  a  question  concerning  God,  the  state,  society,  or 
the  individual,  that  you  cannot  find  conscience  engagedL . 
on  both  sides  of.     In  one  nation,  conscience  command*' 
the  worship  of  Jehovah ;   in  another,  with  equal  impera- 
tiveness, it  commands  the  worship  of  Jupiter,  or  Brahma, 
or  Moloch,  or  Venus,  or  a  bull,  or  a  stone,  or  some  sacred 
serpent.     In  the  breasts  of  our  forefathers,  it  commanded^ 
resistance  to  tyrants,  and  a  contest  for  human  liberty,  even 
at  the  cost  of  property  and  life.     In  Turkey,  conscience 
makes  it  a  sacred  duty  to  heaven  to  be  abjectly  submiss- 
ive to  a  most  degrading  despotism.     Conscience,  in  the 
better  parts  of   Europe  and  America,  commands  a  state 
of  society  in  which  one  husband  is  faithful  to  one  wife, 
and  in  which  both  live  for  the  welfare  of  the  children. 


ii4  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


In  Utah,  conscience  binds  two   or  forty  women   to   one 
man.     In  other  parts  of  the  world,  this  same  conscience 
sanctions  the  possession  by  one  woman   of  several  hus- 
bands.    The  conscience  of  Plato  led  him  to  recommend 
an  ideal  community,  where  husbands  and  wives  should  be 
held  in  common.     The  American  conscience   commands 
the  most  tender  care  of  children,  and  the  watching  over 
and  securing  comfort  to  the  declining  years  of  parents. 
In  India,  conscience  bids  the  loving  mother  cast  her  child 
to  the  crocodile;   and  in  the   South   Seas   it  commands 
children  to  strangle  their  parents,  or  bury  them  alive.     It 
is  held  a  religious  duty  to  do  this  before  they  get  old 
and  decrepit,  that  thus  they  may  enter  their  eternal  life 
young    and    strong.     Conscience    in    Sparta   commanded 
people  to  steal.     Conscience  in   America  builds   prisons 
for  thieves.     Conscience  used  to  forbid  taking  interest  on 
loans.     Money-lenders  now  worship  God,  build  churches, 
and   sustain   missions   on   the   interest    of    their   capital. 
Conscience   once   carried  on  the  slave-trade,  and  estab- 
lished  the   institution   in   America.     Conscience    at   last 
rose  against  it,  declared  it  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies,"  and 
poured   out  blood   and   treasure   to   overthrow  it.     Con- 
science hung  John   Brown;    and   it  made   John   Brown 
willing  to  be  hung.     Conscience  crucified  Jesus ;  and  con- 
science deified  him  because  he  was  willing  to  die  for  his 
ideal    of    right.     Conscience  built   the   Inquisition ;   and 
conscience  made  men  strong  to  bear  its  tortures.     Thus 
it  appears  that  conscience  gives  contradictory  statements, 
and  is  not,  by  any  means,  the  same  all  over  the  world. 


/ 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  115 

There  is  hardly  a  namable  crime  that  conscience  has 
not  somewhere  consecrated  as  a  duty,  and  there  is  hardly 
a  namable  duty,  that  conscience  has  not  somewhere  con- 
demned as  a  crime;  and  not  only  is  this  true  of  the 
condition  of  the  world  to-day,  but  there  has  been  a  contin- 
ual change  and  progression  in  the  doctrine  of  right  and 
wrong,  along  the  line  of  the  pathway  of  human  history. 
The  conscience  of  the  highest  civilization  is  as  much 
above  the  lowest,  as  the  highest  types  and  forms  of  life  on 
the  globe  are  above  the  fishes  and  the  reptiles.  But  the 
"voice  of  God,"  if  it  utter  the  constant  and  eternal  truth, 
cannot  progress.  The  conscience  of  each  man  also 
changes  and  develops  in  accordance  with  his  own  con- 
ditions, education,  and  development  from  childhood  to 
age.  He  conscientiously  drops  some  things  he  once  re- 
garded as  duties,  and  he  feels  bound  by  new  obligations 
that  before  he  did  not  recognize. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  changes  and  fluctuations,  there 
has  been  one  and  only  one  thing  that  has  remained  con- 
stant and  unmoved,  like  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  sea. 
This  one  thing  is  the  fact  that  all  men  everywhere  have^ 
recognized  and  acknowledged  the  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong,  and  have  confessed  the  meaning  of 
ought,  —  ought  to  do  right,  ought  not  to  do  wrong.  Dis- 
agreeing as  to  what  was  right,  and  what  was  wrong,  they 
have  yet  admitted  that  they  ought  to  do  the  one,  and  avoid 
the  other.  This  basal  rock  we  can  rest  on,  and  make  it/ 
the  foundation  on  which  to  build  a  true  doctrine.  But  we 
are  not  quite  ready  for  that  yet. 


/ 


1 1 6*  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

\ 
I  wish  you  to  notice  here  that  this  universal  conflict  and 

contradiction  —  a  very  Babel  of  consciences  —  utterly 
disproves  the  teaching  that  the  human  conscience  is,  in 
any  exceptional  sense,  the  "  voice  of  God  in  the  soul."  It/ 
is  a  purely  human  faculty,  like  the  faculty  for  art  or 
music  ;  and  it  gets  its  authority,  as  they  do,  by  being  true, 
and  just  in  so  far  as  it  is  true.  Now,  orthodoxy  regards^ 
these  other  powers  as  purely  natural ;  but  it  makes  con- 
science an  exception,  regarding  it  as  a  sort  of  permanent 
inspiration,  "  inner  light,"  or  dwelling  of  God  in  the  soul./ 
But  if  God  in  the  soul  speaks  like  a  hanger-on  at  the 
White  House,  or  a  paid  partisan,  according  to  circum- 
stances, it  is  hard  to  see  what  advantage  there  is  in  calling 
it  divine.  The  important  question  is,  Does  it  speak  the 
truth  ?  Orthodoxy  explains  the  fallibility  of  conscience N 
by  the  fall  of  man,  saying  that  this  once  divinely  infallible 
faculty  is  -now  only  a  part  of  the  general  wreck  of  human- 
ity; but  this  is  only  another  way  of  confessing  that  the 
accuracy  of  conscience  depends  on  the  individual  con- 
dition, training,  and  character  of  every  man.  And  on  thisy* 
supposition,  the  consciences  of  all  "  converted "  people 
—  those  recovered  from  the  fall  —  ought  to  agree.  But 
history  teaches  that  the  "  saints  "  have  hated  and  fought 
each  other,  for  conscience'  sake,  quite  as  cordially  as 
though  they  had  been  the  chief  of  sinners.  Evolution 
regards  every  faculty  as  an  unfolding  of  the  divine  life  of 
things,  but  conscience  no  more  truly  so  than  any  other.  / 
But  from  this  confusion  on  the  part  of  the  utterances  of 
conscience,  many  perplexed  thinkers  have  hastily  jumped 


7 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  117 

to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  real  and  ultimate  stand- 
ard of  right,  that  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  convention.  Were 
this  so,  every  man  and  woman  would  be  a  law  to  them- 
selves, and  would  be  justified  in  doing  "  what  was  right  in 
their  own  eyes  ; "  and  when  a  conflict  arose  between  two 
individuals,  or  between  the  individual  and  the  state  or 
society,  it  could  never  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  conflict  of 
principle.  There  would  be  no  principle  ;  it  would  be  on 
the  level  of  a  bear-fight.  It  would  consecrate  and  make 
universal  the  doctrine  that  "  might  makes  right."  Any 
man,  then,  who  should  be  willing  to  die  for  what  he  called 
right,  would  be  simply  a  fool  ;  and  the  great  calendar  of 
the  world's  saints  and  heroes  and  martyrs  would  be  re- 
duced to  a  list  of  candidates  for  a  lunatic-asylum. 

Conscience  is  not  infallible  :  therefore,  whether  you  call 
it  "  voice  of  God,"  or  natural  faculty,  it  practically  comes 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  old  ideas  concerning  it.  But  the'\ 
doctrine  that  right  and  wrong  are  conventional  matters  is 
still  less  tenable.  Which  way,  then,  shall  we  turn  for  the/- 
truth  ?  The  doctrine  of  evolution,  as  applied  to  the  con- 
science, will  be  found  able  to  explain  all  the  facts,  and 
solve  all  the  difficulties.  Let  us,  then,  trace  its  root,  and 
mark  the  line  of  its  development. 

The  root-meaning  of  the  word  "  conscience  "  hints  its 
true  significance.  Conscience  and  consciousness  are  near 
relations.  They  come  from  the  same  stock,  and  differ 
chiefly  in  application  and  use.  Consciousness  is  our  own\ 
knowledge  of  ourselves  and  of  the  relations  between  our 
own  faculties  and  powers.     Conscience  is  our  recognition 


nS  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  the  relations,  as  right  or  wrong,  in  which  we  stand  to 
those   about  us,  —  God  and  our  fellows.     Con-scio  is  toy 
know  with,  in  relations. 

Now,  let  us  see  if  we  can  find  the  basal  principle  of 
morals,  the  very  root  of  the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong.  It  is  to  be  discovered  in  the  fact  of  society,  that 
man  is  not  alone,  but  exists  in  certain  necessary  relations 
to  others.  If  you  will  conceive  a  man  utterly  alone  in  the 
universe,  and  not  only  so,  but  stripped  of  all  those  facul- 
ties and  powers  that  fit  him  for  personal  relations  with 
others,  you  will  see  that  such  a  man  would  be  incapable 
of  any  moral  action.  He  would  not  be  moral,  he  would 
not  be  immoral  :  he  would  simply  be  unmoral.  He  would 
be  incapable  of  doing,  thinking,  or  suffering  wrong :  both 
rijrhts  and  duties  would  be  abolished.  The  first  time  that 
two  persons  looked  each  other  in  the  face,  and  became 
conscious,  or  had  a  conscience,  of  the  independent  exist- 
ence and  rights  of  each  other,  then  the  first  feeble  moral 
sense  became  an  element  of  human  life.  The  lowest  sub- 
stratum out  of  which  this  sense  was  born  was  just  this  rec- 
ognition of  personal  relationship  or  society.  The  germ  of 
it  may  be  found  in  the  forms  of  life  below  the  human,  — 
in  a  bird's  nest,  a  lion's  den,  or  a  herd  of  horses.  Some\ 
highly  developed  dogs  have  been  known  to  recognize  the 
rights  of  their  fellows,  and  to  show  a  sense  of  shame  for 
a  mean  action.  But  it  was  when  primeval  man  developed^' 
the  first  rudimentary  society,  that  the  human  conscience 
was  born.  It  was  the  first  feeble  effort  of  the  imagination 
to  "put  yourself    in  his  place,"   and  thus  conceive  that/ 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  119 


others  were  only  other  selves,  having  similar  desires,  and 
capable  of  feeling  similar  pains. 

Conscience,  then,  began  in,  and  was  commensurate 
with,  the  first  society.  What  was  the  first  society  ?  Nat- 
urally and  of  necessity  it  was  the  family.  So  at  the  first 
there  was  a  family  conscience.  The  father,  the  mother, 
and  the  children  recognized  certain  relationships  in  which 
they  stood  to  each  other,  and  certain  rights  and  duties 
as  ^ringing  out  of  these  relationships.  But  while  having 
a  conscience  toward  each  other,  they  had  no  thought  of 
any  rights  or  duties  as  pertaining  to  a  family  of  strangers. 
They  could  rob  or  murder  or  eat  up  another  family  with 
no  compunctions  of  the  moral  sense  or  qualms  of  con- 
science whatever. 

As  the  family  developed  into  the  tribe,  there  grew  up, 
along  with  the  widened  relationships,  a  tnbjdjaHiscience^. 
All  were  bound  together  in  the  clan,  by  mutual  rights  and 
duties.  And  this  tribal  conscience  has  usually  been  so 
intense  and  strong  that  a  member  of  the  tribe  could  not 
possibly  live  in  disregard  of  it.  And  yet,  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  tribe,  they  have  sometimes  had  no  conscience 
at  all.  Take,  for  example,  a  clan  of  Scottish  Highland- 
ers. Robbery,  ravishment,  and  murder  were  supposed 
<rood  enough  for  the  members  of  a  hostile  clan,  while  all 
these  things  were  sternly  repressed  or  severely  punished 
within  their  own  borders.  Or  look  at  the  tribes  of 
American  Indians.  A  Delaware  could  be  chivalrous  and 
hi°-h-toned  as  a  modern  gentleman  toward  the  members 
of   his  own   tribe  ;   and,  at  the  same  time,  to  lie  to,  to 


120  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

cheat,  to  ambush,  torture,  or  scalp,  an  Iroquois,  was  a 
virtue. 

Then,  as  the  tribes  grew  large,  organized,  civilized,  and 
settled  in  cities,  there  came  the  development  of  the  city 
conscience.  The  palmiest  days  of  Greece  can  illustrate 
this.  The  Athenian  conscience  was  practically  limited 
to  Athens.  The  citizen  of  Athens,  proud  of  his  city 
and  jealous  of  her  rights,  had  no  conscience  toward 
Sparta. 

But  now  that  governments  are  not  limited  to  city  walls, 
when  many  cities  and  towns  are  leagued  together  under 
one  national  flag,  we  have  developed  a  national  con- 
science. The  progress  of  civilization  has  hardly  ad- 
vanced beyond  this  as  yet.  Americans  feel  a  wrong  done 
to  an  American  citizen  anywhere  on  the  globe ;  and  they 
feel  justified  in  urging  the  government  to  demand  redress, 
even  at  the  price  of  war.  But  they  do  not  lie  awake 
nights,  nor  get  righteously  angry,  over  wrongs  done  to  a 
German  or  an  Italian  citizen.  Yet  in  one  case  the  wrong 
is  as  great  and  real  as  in  the  other.  We  feel  an  insult 
to  the  piece  of  bunting  we  call  our  flag,  and  are  ready  to 
fight  for  the  national  honor.  But  instead  of  having  the 
same  conscience  of  wrong  when  England  is  insulted,  we 
can  most  of  us  remember  the  time  when  thousands  of 
Americans  would  chuckle  over  it,  and  think  it  was  good 
enough  for  her.  We  sympathize  at  once  with  the  faintest 
scream  of  our  eagle  ;  but  the  sorrow  changes  to  a  grin  of 
satisfaction  when  we  hear  the  lion  roar. 

In  regard  to  other  and  broader  questions,  however,  we 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  121 


bury  the  distinctions  of  nationality  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  race. 

In  some  directions  there  is  what  may  be  called  a 
Caucasian,  or  white  man's,  conscience. — It  is  only  a  little 
while  ago,  that  it  had  passed  into  a  proverb  that "  negroes 
had  no  rights  which  a  white  man  was  bound  to  respect." 
It  was  this  spirit  that  Nasby  caricatured  when  he  pro- 
posed the  sarcastic  improvement  of  the  New  Testament 
words  so  as  to  make  them  read,  "  Suffer  the  little  (white) 
children  to  come  unto  me."  And  to-day,  in  California, 
Christian  men  look  on,  and  see  the  Chinese  subjected  to 
such  treatment  as  is  a  disgrace  to  humanity.  Such  abuse 
of  white  men  would  kindle  a  revolution.  Yet  the  San 
Francisco  conscience  is  very  comfortable  over  the  matter. 

The  day  will  come  when  the  present  rudimentary 
notions  of  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  man  will  be  devel- 
oped into  all  the  breadth  and  grandeur  of  a  comprehen- 
sive human  conscience.  All  the  old  partial  forms  of 
conscience  still  remain,  and  have  their  representatives 
in  other  directions.  In  many  the  family  conscience  is 
still  dominant ;  and  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  in  their 
hearts  grows  weak  as  they  leave  the  home.  Then  there 
is  a  church  conscience.  Even  Paul  could  write,  "Do 
good  unto  all  men,  but  specially  to  them  who  are  of  the 
household  of  faith."  And  there  is  a  club  or  corporate 
conscience,  illustrated  by  such  orders  as  the  Masons. 
They  feel  obliged  to  help  each  other,  not  so  much 
because  they  are  men  as  because  they  are  Masons.  The 
church  and  the  Masons  are  good,  only  they  are  partial. 


122  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

So  there  are  professional  and  business  consciences.  Min- 
isters, lawyers,  bankers,  merchants,  mechanics,  each  too 
often  shut  up  their  sympathies  within  their  own  limits, 
making  one  set  of  rules  for  themselves,  and  another  for 
them  "that  are  without."  A  true  conscience  will  be 
wider  than  this.  It  will  issue  in  what  has  been  finely 
called  "  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity."  It  will  make 
binding  on  every  soul  the  saying  of  Jesus,  "Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;"  and  the  word  "  neighbor " 
shall  be  comprehensive  enough  to  include  every  human 
being. 

And  one  step  more  must  conscience  take.  Paul  could 
raise  the  question,  and  give  a  negative  answer  to  his  in- 
quiry, as  to  whether  God  cared  for  oxen :  "  Doth  God  take 
care  for  oxen  ?  "  But  that  is  a  narrow  and  only  partially 
developed  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  that  leaves  out  of 
its  account  any  living  thing.  There  is  a  sentimental 
regard  for  animals,  as  well  as  for  men,  that  is  some 
times  ready  to  oppose  the  justifiable  sacrifice  of  a  lesser 
and  personal  to  a  greater  and  general  good.  A  few 
people  care  for  pets.  But  the  "  Society  for  the  Preven- 
tion of  Cruelty  to  Animals  "  is  a  living  witness  for  the 
fact  that  the  human  conscience  is  lamentably  weak  on  the 
side  of  our  dealings  with  the  brute  creation.  English 
hunting  scenes,  Spanish  bull-fights,  as  well  as  the  practice 
of  American  sportsmen,  witness  the  same  thing.  An  old 
divine  could  speak  of  it  as  a  proof  of  God's  goodness  to 
men,  that  he  made  the  animals  for  their  delectation  in 
such  delightful  sports  as  bull  and  bear  fights  ;  and  Mac- 




THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  ny 

aulay  said  the  Puritans  in  England  opposed  bear-baiting 
not  so  much  because  it  hurt  the  bears,  as  because  it  gave 
pleasure  to  men. 

Where  there  is  any  good  reason  for  infringing  the 
natural  rights  of  the  animal  world,  of  course  those  rights 
are  extinguished  in  a  higher  need.  But  I  wish  I  could 
burn  into  every  human  soul  the  righteous  indignation  and 
contempt  which  the  sensitive  Cowper  felt  for  any  one  who 
was  mean  enough  to  "  needlessly  set  foot  upon  a  worm." 
The  rights  of  a  worm  are  as  sacred,  in  his  degree,  as^ 
yours  are ;  and  a  true  conscience  will  recognize  them.         / 

Now,  you  will  notice  that  in  this  upward  development 
and  broadening  of  conscience  it  has  been,  all  the  way 
and  everywhere,  governed  by  the  same  one  principle  that 
we  found  to  be  its  germ.  It  has  everywhere  sprung  out\ 
of  relationships,  or  supposed  relationships ;  and  it  has 
been  commensurate  with  a  knowledge  and  sense  of  these 
relationships.  Many  real  and  vital  relationships  have/ 
been  unperceived ;  and  so  in  body,  mind,  and  soul,  men 
have  suffered,  lost,  and  died  on  account  of  this  ignorance ; 
but  they  have  had  no  conscience  about  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  have  imagined  a  thousand  relationships  that 
had  no  real  existence.  But  since  supposed  facts  have  all 
the  force  of  real  ones  on  the  mind,  they  have  manufac- 
tured consciences  answering  to  the  imagined  realities,  and 
so  have  invented  a  thousand  duties  that  did  not  really 
exist.  Carrying  this  thought  out  now  by  some  illustrations 
from  practical  life,  we  shall  be  able  clearly  to  mark  the 
distinction  between  a  true  and  a  false  conscience.     A  true"\ 


124^  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

conscience  is  one  that  answers  to,  and  takes  cognizance 
of,  the  real  relationships  in  which  we  stand  to  God,  the 
world  about  us,  and  our  fellow-men.  A  false  conscience 
is  one  that  answers  to,  and  is  formed  in  accordance  with, 
what  the  man  supposes  to  be  true,  but  which  is  really 
false.     Let  us  take  some  specimens  from  real  life.  y 

I.  A  false  co7iscience. 

The  early  Greeks  and  Romans  believed  heartily  in  the 
supposed  fact  that  Jupiter,  Juno,  Mars,  Venus  and  their 
fellow  gods  and  goddesses  held  a  celestial  court  on  the 
summit  of  Mount  Olympus.  To  their  thought  these  were 
real  divinities,  ruling  the  world,  and  holding  in  their 
hands  the  destinies  of  nations  and  of  men.  Their  moral 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  their  conscience  of  religious 
obligation,  took  hold  of,  and  adjusted  itself  to,  these  sup- 
posed but  really  non-existent  facts.  Thus,  out  of  what 
we  know  was  only  inherited  superstition  that  had  no 
objective  reality,  they  constructed  a  whole  religious  sys- 
tem by  which  they  were  bound  with  the  strictest  sense 
of  obligation.  They  built  temples,  and  instituted  rites, 
and  felt  their  whole  life  touched  and  shaped  by  what  to 
them  was  the  real  sense  of  the  overlooking  and  ever- 
present  gods.  We  know  to-day  that  what  they  so  labori- 
ously performed  were  no  real  duties  at  all.  Their  fears 
were  groundless,  and  their  hopes  were  dreams.  They 
had  a  vital  conscience  of  what  did  not  exist.  These 
same  people,  believing  that  the  proper  burial  of  the  body 
was  intimately  connected  with  the  future  rest  of  the  soul, 
would  suffer  conscientious  pangs  for  years  on  account  of 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  125 

any  neglect  of  the  funeral  rites.  We  know  that  all  this 
fear  was  purely  imaginary.  I  have  spoken  of  tribes  that 
held  it  a  religious  duty  to  put  their  parents  to  death 
before  they  grew  old  and  infirm,  because  they  believed 
that,  if  they  entered  the  spirit-land  withered  or  old  or 
decrepit,  they  would  remain  so  forever.  Thus  their 
consciences  turned  murder  of  father  and  mother  into 
the  most  sacred  religious  duties.  We,  knowing  that  these 
supposed  facts  are  only  superstition,  regard  as  horrible 
what  they  think  religion.  Paul,  believing  in  Moses  as 
against  Christ,  thought  it  his  duty  to  persecute  the  early 
Christians.  Afterward,  when  he  changed  his  thought  of 
the  relations  in  which  he  stood,  he  found  out  that  his 
first  conscience  in  the  matter  was  a  false  one.  The  first 
Christians,  believing  that  Christ  was  coming  immediately 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  destroy  and  reconstruct  the 
world,  held  it  their  duty  to  oppose  property  and  marriage,, 
and  the  whole  order  of  things  on  which  civilization  de- 
pends. Their  conscience  in  this  matter  was  false  because 
their  supposed  facts  were  untrue.  The  Romanist  wor- 
ships Mary,  and  prays  to  saints,  and  trusts  in  relics  and 
superstitious  ceremonies.  His  conscience  binds  him  to 
this ;  but  we  know  that  his  conscience  is  false,  because  it 
is  made  to  accord  with  a  whole  world  of  imaginations 
that  are  no  facts,  and  that  do  not  at  all  touch  the  question 
of  his  moral  goodness,  or  real  relation  to  God  or  man. 
The  early  Puritans  felt  conscientiously  bound  to  drive  out 
the  Quakers,  and  burn  the  witches ;  but  theirs  was  a  false 
conscience,  because  the  Quakers  were  as  sincere  religion- 


126  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ists  as  themselves,  and  there  were  no  such  things  as  real 
witches.  Moody  and  Sankey  believe  in  an  angry  God, 
and  an  everlasting  hell ;  and  their  consciences  are  made 
to  answer  to  these  supposed  facts ;  but,  disbelieving  what 
to  them  are  vital  truths,  we  conscientiously  oppose  their 
methods  and  their  work  as  dishonoring  to  both  God  and 
humanity.  So,  all  about  us,  we  see  men  and  women  who 
have  a  false  Sunday  conscience,  or  business  conscience, 
or  reform  conscience,  or  prohibitionist  conscience,  or 
political  conscience ;  and  these  men  will  be  conscien- 
tiously unjust  and  uncharitable  and  persecuting  and  cruel. 
The  most  uncomfortable  man  in  the  world  to  get  along 
with  is  one  who  is  pig-headedly  obstinate  in  his  conscien- 
tiousness. He  is  so  certain  that  he  is  doing  God's  work, 
that  he  will  be  religiously  inhuman  about  it.  He  gets  so 
anxious  to  drive  men  into  heaven,  that  he  will  use  the 
spirit  and  weapons  of  hell  in  the  work. 

Now,  all  this  false  conscientiousness  grows  out  of  the 
fact  that  men  suppose  they  stand  in  certain  relationships 
that  do  not  really  exist.  Thus  the  imagined  duties  are 
no  duties  at  all. 

II.  A  True  Conscience. 

The  nature  of  a  true  conscience  appears  in  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  very  opposite  of  the  false.  It  is  one  that 
answers  to  the  real  facts  and  relations  of  life.  I  am 
under  no  real  obligation  to  any  imaginary  God,  whether 
he  be  the  dream  of  a  Hindoo  or  Greek  or  Jew  or  Chris- 
tian. Toward  the  God  of  Pius  IX.,  or  of  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey,  or  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  or  of  the  evangelist 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  127  ^ 

Moody,  I  feel  no  gratitude,  and  admit  no  sense  of  duty 
or  obligation.  The  real  duty  lies  toward  the  real  and 
true  God  who  is  manifested  in  the  great  laws,  forces,  and 
realities  of  the  world,  and  in  the  highest  and  purest  life 
and  thought  of  humanity.  Though  each  narrow  reli- 
gionist calls  it  infidelity  and  atheism,  yet  the  truth  of  the 
true  God  is  the  only  true  religion  of  which  the  true  con- 
science will  be  the  echo.  Orthodoxy  regards  the  liberal 
as  derelict  in  duty  because  he  does  not  join  him  in  his 
work  of  soul-saving.  So  does  the  Mohammedan  look 
upon  the  Christian  because  he  does  not  seek  his  heaven 
through  Allah  and  his  prophet.  But  the  God,  and  the^ 
heaven,  and  the  hell,  and  the  lost  humanity,  of  ortho- 
doxy, we  believe  to  be  purely  imaginary.  Thus  their  all- 
engrossing  work  is  not  only  no  real  duty  to  us,  but  it  is 
even  effort  thrown  away,  power  wasted,  that  might  be 
rightly  used  in  real  help  for  man.  A  true  conscience^7 
then,  is  one  that  knows  and  is  adjusted  to  the  realities 
of  life.  When  men  know  the  truth  about  God,  about 
themselves,  —  body  and  mind  and  spirit,  —  about  the  real 
relations  of  equity  in  which  they  stand  to  their  fellow- 
men  in  state  and  church  and  society,  and  when  they 
appreciate  these,  and  adjust  their  consciences  to  them, 
then  they  will  have  a  true  conscience.  An  absolutely  N. 
true  conscience  of  course  cannot  exist  so  long:  as  our 
knowledge  of  the  reality  of  things  is  only  partial.  We 
can  only  make  closer  and  closer  approximations  to  the 
ultimate  truth.  So  conscience  will  keep  step  with  the 
progress  of  the  race.     Just  as  the  old  theories  of  the  uniy- 


128^  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


verse  are  being  constantly  corrected  by  the  advancing 
knowledge  of  the  world,  and  the  real  facts  of  things  are 
coming  to  light  more  and  more,  so  will  the  sense  of  duty 
grow,  broaden,  and  advance,  re-adjusting  itself  continu- 
ally to  the  higher  intelligence  of  the  time.  It  is  only 
beginning  to  be  seen  how  conscience  must  have  to  do 
with  the  care  of  the  body,  with  sanitary  regulations  of 
cities  and  homes,  with  the  proper  treatment  of  the  crim- 
inal classes,  and  with  the  whole  physical  life  of  the 
world.  "The  thoughts  of  man  are  widened  with  the 
process  of  the  suns."  And  so  the  conscience  of  man 
will  widen  to  the  measure  of  his  thoughts. 

But  in  the  midst  of  this  progress,  and  since  the  con-\ 
science  is  not  infallible,  which  way  lies  present,  practical 
duty?  In  the  first  place,  I  would  say,  Whatever  any 
man's  conscience  commands,  that  he  must  do.  It  is  to 
each  soul  the  supreme  voice  of  obligation  ;  and  he  must 
obey  it  on  penalty  of  violating  and  weakening  and  killing 
out  his  moral  sense.  Evolution  will  insist  on  this  just 
as  strongly  as  the  old  orthodoxy.  Whatever  you  are/ 
persuaded  is  wrong,  that  you  have  no  business  to  do. 
Whatever  you  think  is  right,  you  are  under  the  highest 
obligation  to  perform.  Even  though  to  others  it  be 
only  a  whim  or  a  prejudice,  it  is  to  you  supreme  duty. 
Whether  it  is  a  Romanist  refusing  meat  on  Friday,  or  a 
High-Churchman  staying  away  from  opera  in  Lent,  or 
an  Orthodox  refusing  to  ride  in  a  street-car  on  Sunday, 
still  each  one  must  obey  the  dictate  of  conscience.  If 
the  pope  thinks  Luther  is  sending  men  to  hell,  then  he 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CONSCIENCE.  129 

must  seek  to  crush  him  ;  and  if  Luther  believes  he  is 
standing  for  God,  then  he  must  defy  the  pope.  And  here, 
in  this  clash  and  conflict  of  consciences,  come  the  great 
tragedies  of  history.  Men  and  causes  temporarily  go 
down ;  but  God  and  truth  ultimately  win  the  day  for  a 
higher  humanity.  Out  of  the  tempest  comes  a  clearer 
air  in  which  the  outlines  of  truth  are  more  distinctly 
visible. 

But,  secondly,  each  man  must  remember  that  his  con-^ 
science  is  not  infallible,  and  that  it  may  not  represent  the 
real  truth  of  things.  So  there  comes  in  a  duty  that  over- 
tops all  others,  —  the  duty  of  perpetual,  earnest  search 
for  truth,  that  so  the  conscience  may  be  made  to  accord/ 
with  the  real  facts  of  God.  You  must  keep  ever  your 
eyes  open  for  light,  and  your  heart  open  with  a  world- 
wide welcome  for  whatever  is  pure  and  true.  Remember 
that  we  are  finite  minds  in  the  midst  of  infinite  realities. 
"  We  know  only  in  part ; "  we  must  seek  to  know  as 
completely  as  we  may.  Throwing  away  prejudice  and 
conceit,  seek  to  make  your  conscience  like  the  magnetic 
needle.  The  needle  ever  and  naturally  seeks  the  un- 
changing pole.  Ignorance  and  false  teaching,  and  self- 
confidence  and  passion,  are  side  attractions  that  deflect 
it  from  the  right.  Surround  it  only  with  truth,  and  it  will 
guide  the  way  to  God  and  the  eternal  life.  "  A  good 
conscience "  is  to  be  found  only  by  finding  out  the 
real  truth  of  things,  —  truth  that  can  be  verified  and 
settled  as  true,  —  and  then  by  a  constant  and  sincere 
obedience.     With  loyal  heart,  then,    anxious   to   do    the 


130  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

right  when  discovered,  let  our  daily  longing  and  prayer 
be  the  sincere  cry  that  the  Grecian  Ajax  sent  up  out  of 
the  darkness  of  his  conflict  before  the  walls  of  ancient 
Troy,  — for  light. 

"  Walk  in  the  light :  so  shalt  thou  know 
That  fellowship  of  love 
His  spirit  only  can  bestow 
Who  reigns  in  light  above. 

"  Walk  in  the  light :  and  thou  shalt  own 
Thy  darkness  passed  away, 
Because  that  light  on  thee  hath  shone 
In  which  is  perfect  day." 


VII. 

LOVE   IN   LAW. 

Law,  in  the  popular  mind,  means  all  that  is  cold,  hard, 
heartless,  and  cruel.  This  feeling  has  been  fostered 
somewhat  by  inconsiderate  writing  on  the  part  of  some 
scientists,  or  by  popular  misconception  of  scientific  writ- 
ings. But  the  larger  cause  has  been  the  tone  of  theol- 
ogy and  the  pulpit.  These  have  represented  law  as  only 
police  and  hangmen,  thunders  of  Sinai,  or  torments  of 
hell.  For  ages  the  plan  has  been  systematically  pursued, 
of  making  men  feel  that  they  were  in  the  clutches  of 
cruel  law  bent  on  their  destruction,  and  then  of  offer- 
ing them  deliverance  from  its  iron  power  by  means  of  a 
gospel  of  mercy  and  love  that  was  represented  as  being 
outside  of  and  above  law.  Thus  the  belief  has  been 
created,  that  law  and  love  were  of  necessity  in  a  kind  of 
eternal  antagonism.  To  the  question,  then,  of  the  nature 
and  results  of  law,  whether  it  is  loving  or  cruel,  we  will 
now  address  ourselves. 

The  early  conception  of  the  universe  was  that  its  great 
forces  were  predominantly  cruel.     Cold,  darkness,  storm, 

>3' 


I32  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


hunger,  wild  beasts,  death,  all  these  were  the  work  of  evil 
beings  that  had  no  love  for  man,  and  were  instigated 
by  hatred  and  malice.  Nature  was  cruel.  It  was  not, 
however,  cruel  law.  These  early  men  had  no  conception 
of  any  such  thing  as  law.  Cause  and  effect  had  no 
orderly  relation  in  their  mind.  It  was  only  cruel  caprice. 
Behind  these  great  movements  and  forces  were  malignant 
persons  that  loved  the  smell  of  blood,  and  rejoiced  in 
the  infernal  music  of  human  groans,  and  eagerly  licked 
up  the  tears  that  sorrow  let  fall.  This  is  true  of  all  the 
early  religions.  The  popular  conception  of  Jehovah 
among  the  Jews  was  that  he  was  hard  and  cruel,  the 
god  of  thunderbolts  and  hail,  "  a  consuming  fire,"  one 
punishing  children  for  the  sins  of  the  fathers.  At  first, 
then,  nature  was  cruel  caprice. 

In  after-times  there  gradually  grew  up  a  belief  in  a 
good  god.  But  you  must  notice  that  he  was  not  at  all 
the  god  of  these  supposed  cruel  forces  of  nature.  They 
were  bad  gods  still  in  all  their  terrible  reality.  Only 
another  god  appeared,  who  was  good  and  kindly  disposed 
toward  humanity,  and  who  opposed  and  sought  to  de- 
stroy the  works  of  the  wicked  nature-deities.  This  good 
divinity  was  outside  of  and  wholly  separate  from  nature, 
so  that  nature  was  still  regarded  as  evil.  This  belief  was 
fully  developed  in  Persia,  where  Zoroaster  had  set  in 
eternal  opposition  the  good  Ahura-Mazda  and  the  evil 
Ahriman.  A  similar  belief  appears  in  early  Greece, 
where  Prometheus  is  chained  forever  to  the  rock,  while 
a  vulture  eternally  devours  his  vitals  ;    and    all   because 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  133 


he  had  shown  himself  disposed  to  help  mankind  by 
revealing  some  of  the  celestial  secrets.  He  is  the  good 
god  overpowered  by  a  majority  of  the  Olympians,  who 
were  evil  disposed  toward  men.  A  similar  idea  appears 
in  early  Christianity.  God  the  Father,  laying  aside  the 
Old-Testament  hardness,  appears  as  one  who  loves  and 
wishes  to  save  humanity.  But  the  world  of  material 
forms  and  forces  is  all  opposed  to  him,  being  under  the 
dominion  of  the  "  Prince  of  this  world."  God  in  Christ 
was  to  deliver  from  his  power,  and  from  the  domination 
of  the  world  of  sin  and  death,  all  who  put  their  trust  in 
him,  and  renounced  loyalty  to  the  devil.  Christendom 
has  generally  stood  for  this  phase  of  belief.  There  was 
not  yet  any  law,  in  the  modern  sense  of  that  term  :  it 
was  only  that  God  stood  apart  from  and  opposed  to  the 
evil  forces  and  dominion  of  nature,  ready  to  save  out  of 
it  any  who  would  accept  the  conditions.  From  this  has 
sprung  up  the  present  popular  conception  of  nature  and 
law  as  something  apart  from  and  opposed  to  God,  so 
that  the  religious  literature  of  the  time  is  full  of  the  sup- 
posed need  of  a  loving  power  to  care  for,  protect  in,  and 
deliver  from,  these  great  natural  laws  and  powers.  The 
thought  is,  These  laws  are  hard  and  cold  and  cruel :  they 
do  not  heed  our  tears  ;  they  do  not  care  for  our  prayers  : 
we  want  to  believe  in  some  one  outside  of  and  above 
law,  who  will  turn  aside  its  wheels,  and  save  us  from 
being  crushed  under  the  onward  roll  of  this  Juggernaut. 

But  in  very  modern    times,  and    in  spite  of    all  senti- 
ments of  fear  or  feeling,  wide  and  deep  study  has  devel- 


£34  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

oped  a  knowledge  and  sense  of  law,  as  opposed  to  what 
is  regarded  as  the  capricious  action  of  will.  And  this 
belief  in  law  threatens  to  cover,  with  its  network  of  cause 
and  effect,  all  the  universe.  Science  recognizes  every- 
where in  nature  the  dominion  of  law.  It  has  also  de- 
monstrated the  law  of  development,  or  evolution,  that 
brings  into  the  general  order  the  whole  movement  and 
upward  march  of  life  on  the  globe.  It  talks  now  of  laws 
of  history,  laws  of  society,  laws  of  virtue,  laws  of  crime. 
The  most  changeable  and  apparently  capricious  move- 
ments and  forces,  it  threatens  to  catch  and  hold  in  the 
meshes  of  its  universal  order.  And  all  the  while,  in  the 
popular  mind,  this  law  seems  to  exclude  God  and  his 
love,  and  to  leave  all  things  in  the  hands  of  a  hard  and 
heedless  fate. 

Men  wish  to  know,  then,  whether  this  is  true.  If  law  is 
everywhere,  is  love  shut  out  ?  The  popular  conception 
of  love,  as  something  outside  of,  above,  and  delivering 
from  law,  is  shut  out.  God  himself  is  not  above  law; 
for  law  is  order  and  reason  and  the  cosmos.  Put  God 
outside  of  law,  and  you  make  him  disorder  and  unreason 
and  chaos.  Not  that  God  is  subject  to  any  law  higher 
and  stronger  than  himself ;  but  that  he  must  live  out  the 
law  of  his  own  being.  That  man  is  subject  to  the  law 
of  his  own  being,  is  only  to  say  that  he  is  sane.  Supe- 
riority to  law,  order,  and  reason,  is  what  we  mean  by 
insanity.  The  condition,  then,  must  be  one  of  two,  — 
law  without  love,  or  else  love  in  law ;  law  the  expression 
of  love ;  for  love  without  law,  or  above  it,  or  outside  of 


V 

LOVE  IN  LAW.  13s 


it,  is  only  unreason  and  chaos.  Love  in  law,  then,  is 
rhe  thought  of  the  highest  and  clearest  thinkers  j  and  it 
must  be  the  ruling  thought  of  the  future. 

These  three  stages  of  thought  the  human  mind  has\ 
passed  through  in  its  upward  evolution.  First,  cruelty 
as  caprice ;  next,  love  as  caprice  opposed  to  capricious 
cruelty ;  and,  lastly,  law,  —  first  thought  of  as  hard  and 
heartless,  and  then  lifting  up  into  all-dominant  love,  as 
itself  of  necessity  law  and  order,  superior  to  caprice,  and, 
as  being  perfect,  incapable  of  change.  This  last  is  the 
position  of  "the  religion  of  evolution."  Let  us  now^ 
see  if  we  can  comprehend  something  of  its  truth  and 
beauty. 

And,  first,  we  will  see  how  broad  and  all-inclusive  is 
this  universal  "reign  of  law."  As  we  have  seen,  the 
early  races  put  persons  everywhere.  There  was  a  god  of 
the  year.  Day  and  Night  were  deities.  The  Dawn,  a 
goddess,  led  forth  the  dance  of  the  rosy-fingered  Hours, 
twelve  other  deities.  The  Sun,  a  god,  drove  his  flashing 
chariot-wheels  across  the  solid  roadway  of  the  sky ;  and 
at  night  the  Moon,  "pale  goddess,"  ruled  the  dusky 
Hours,  and  led  out  the  Stars  for  their  night-long  choral 
song.  The  wind,  and  the  clouds,  and  the  light,  and  the 
sky,  and  the  rivers,  and  the  seas,  and  the  trees  all  had 
their  god  or  goddess.  Nothing  ever  came  to  pass  except 
as  the  work  of  some  personal  will.  And  these  wills  had 
no  conference  or  understanding  together;  but  each  did 
"  what  was  right  in  his  own  eyes."  The  god  of  the  winds 
made  them  blow  to  suit  his  own  whim  or  caprice,  or  to 


136  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

help  or  harm,  as  he  took  a  notion.  The  god  of  the  sky 
sent  rain  or  dew  or  bright  days,  as  best  accorded  with 
his  own  convenience,  or  as  moved  thereto  by  prayers  or 
sacrifices.  The  god  of  the  grapes  gave  plenty  of  wine, 
or  blasted  the  ripening  harvest,  as  he  pleased.  Ceres 
blessed  the  corn,  or  cut  off  the  crop.  Nothing  was  sup- 
posed to  occur  according  to  fixed  and  calculable  order. 
All  was  practically  chance,  because  no  one  knew  before- 
hand —  except  by  oracle  or  prophecy  —  what  any  partic- 
ular god  might  conclude  to  do.  This  was  the  condition 
of  thought  throughout  the  so-called  heathen  world. 

Among  the  Hebrews  it  was  very  much  the  same. 
While,  in  their  later  centuries,  they  were  monotheistic, 
and  recognized  but  one  God,  the  supreme  Jehovah,  they 
yet  thought  of  all  natural  forces  as  under  the  direct  and 
constant  superintendence  of  angels,  who  ruled  as  vice- 
gerents, or  satraps,  over  the  different  departments  of  the 
world.  There  was  an  angel  in  the  sun,  an  angel  in  the 
moon,  angels  in  the  stars,  angels  of  the  winds  and  waters, 
rivers  and  trees,  angels  of  rain  and  storm  and  darkness, 
angels  of  the  growing  crops  and  of  flowers,  angels  every- 
where, and  the  active  agents  in  every  thing.  This  sys- 
tem differed  from  the  "  heathen  "  only  in  this,  that  these 
angels  were  supposed  to  be  subject  and  answerable  to 
Jehovah,  who  was  the  only  king.  But  this  difference  was 
partly  broken  down  by  the  belief  that  sometimes  these 
angels  were  rebellious  and  faithless  to  God,  and  ruled 
wickedly  after  their  own  evil  thought  and  will. 

Thus,  at  first,  law  was  nowhere.     This  in  general  was 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  137 


the  condition  of  affairs  until  very  recent  times.  Perhaps 
few  are  accustomed  to  think  how  modern  a  thing  is 
this  conception  of  law.  Even  in  the  time  of  Kepler,  the 
wisest  astronomers  must  think  of  an  angel  in  the  sun  and 
moon  and  stars  to  account  for  their  movements.  The 
first  grand  triumph  of  law  was  in  Newton's  discovery  of 
gravitation.  This  bound  the  orbs  of  the  material  uni- 
verse in  the  perfect  and  beautiful  order  that  to-day  makes 
astronomy  the  most  exact  and  fascinating  of  sciences. 
But  by  many  the  comet  was  still  regarded  as  an  excep- 
tion, a  lawless  and  unaccountable  wanderer  up  and  down 
the  heavens.  But  when  it  was  found  that  gravitation  was 
able  to  calculate  even  his  apparent  irregularity,  and  to 
tell,  from  the  path  of  his  departure,  just  the  year  and 
hour  of  his  return,  even  over  the  gulf  of  centuries,  then 
the  comet  himself  began  to  keep  time  and  step  with  the 
orderly  march  of  the  "host  of  heaven,"  the  armies  of 
God.  From  that  day  to  this,  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
and  the  discovery  of  law,  have  kept  even  pace.  Caprice 
and  miracle  and  spirits  are  still  sometimes  called  in  to 
explain  what  else  is  not  understood.  But  we  know  from 
the  past  that  a  thousand  things  considered  miraculous  and 
inexplicable  by  natural  law  have  at  last  been  explained, 
and  are  now  thoroughly  understood,  so  that  from  known 
causes  certain  and  definite  results  can  be  easily  and 
always  predicted  with  an  absolute  certainty ;  and,  if  any 
thing  can  be  learned  from  the  logic  of  the  past,  it  is 
certain  that  the  mysteries  and  unaccountable  phenomena 
of  the  world  will  one  clay  be  known,  and  reduced  to  the 


133  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

natural  and  universal  order  of  cause  and  effect.  Caprice 
and  lawlessness  are  already  driven  into  the  dark  corners 
of  the  earth,  where  the  light  of  knowledge  has  not  yet 
penetrated.  But  this  is  without  exception  true,  that  there 
is  absolutely  nothing  that  is  known  which  is  not  subject 
to  and  explainable  by  law.  Let  us  look  about  us  a  little 
and  see,  so  as  to  impress  upon  ourselves  this  truth. 

Every  sun  and  moon  and  star  and  comet  is  held  in  and 
guided  by  the  reins  of  an  omnipresent  law.  Even  their 
perturbations  and  irregularities  can  be  accounted  for  and 
predicted  beforehand.  The  development  of  the  earth, 
from  its  molten  to  its  habitable  condition,  has  been  in  the 
hands  and  under  the  guidance  of  a  law  so  perfect  that 
the  most  remote  and  various  results  might  have  been 
seen  and  predicted  from  the  beginning.  The  history  of 
the  rise,  the  growth,  and  the  decay  of  nations,  also  is 
only  another  illustration  of  law.  The  nature  of  their 
origin,  their  elements,  and  their  surroundings,  have  deter- 
mined their  careers  and  the  "  bounds  of  their  habita- 
tion." It  matters  not  that  they  themselves  have  not 
recognized  it.  The  drops  of  water  in  a  stream  do  not 
recognize  the  currents  and  the  banks ;  but  one  standing 
on  the  shore  can  trace  and  formulate  the  law  of  its  whole 
movement  from  source  to  mouth.  So,  as  we  study  the 
past  of  humanity,  we  can  see  that  the  movements,  the 
wars,  the  conquests  and  defeats,  the  overturnings,  were 
not  matters  of  caprice  or  chance,  but  were  governed  by 
all-determining  laws.  So  true  is  this,  that  one  who  studies 
France,  or  Spain,  or  Germany,  or  the  United   States,  can 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  139 


trace  the  order  of  its  destiny,  and  predict  the  main  out- 
lines of  its  near  future.  Even  the  fair  forms  below  us, 
the  slightest  and  most  frail,  tell  the  same  story.  The 
wild  field-flower,  in  all  its  freedom  of  growth  and  grace 
of  development,  is  the  handiwork  of  law.  Down  in  the 
little  earth-hid  seed,  and  in  the  invisible  forces  of  the  air, 
are  the  powers  that  control  its  apparently  wanton  growth, 
and  unroll  its  tinted  petals  until  they  look  up  perfect  to 
the  sun.  It  is  the  product  of  conditions  so  fixed  that  the 
size  and  shape  of  its  stem,  the  number  of  its  leaves,  the 
shading  of  its  colors,  and  the  quality  of  its  odors,  could 
not  possibly  have  been  other  than  exactly  what  they  are. 
And  so  far  is  this  from  marring  its  grace  and  beauty,  that 
it  requires  the  perfect  laws  to  produce  the  perfect  finish. 
Thus  the  nice  hand  of  law  has  wrought  for  us  the  million 
varieties  of  the  grasses  and  the  flowers ;  and  they  are 
what  they  are  simply  because  they  came  up  in  "  the  law 
of  the  Lord." 

The  same  is  true  of  those  forces  of  nature  that  seem 
the  most  lawless  and  uncontrolled.  Even  the  wind,  as  it 
"bloweth  where  it  listeth,"  always  "listeth"  to  blow  in 
the  way  appointed  it.  It  has  its  fixed  courses,  its  going 
out  and  its  return.  It  runs  swiftly  in  well-defined  chan- 
nels, as  truly  as  do  the  rivers  in  their  banks.  And  while 
seemingly  loitering  on,  toying  with  a  flower,  or  a  lock  of 
hair,  or  fanning  an  invalid's  cheek,  its  way  is  as  sure  as 
that  of  the  eddying  ripple  on  the  brook's  surface.  And 
when  the  sweeping  hurricane  drags  on  through  the  wild 
heavens   its   black    car   of    desolation,    it   rushes   on   its 


140  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

appointed  way  as  really  as  do  mountain  torrents  that  the 
rains  have  swollen.  So  the  lightning  strikes  no  uncertain 
blow  j  neither  do  the  surcharged  clouds  of  the  tempest 
drift  aimlessly  in  the  sky.  Law  sits  as  charioteer,  and 
holds  the  certain  rein.  Free,  wild,  unchanged,  the  fury 
of  the  storm  is  as  truly  in  the  hands  of  law  as  is  the 
electric  flash  when  bound  to  the  continent-spanning  or 
ocean-diving  wire,  and  bearing  regular  messages  for  man. 
Gen.  Myers  sits  in  Washington,  and,  reviewing  the  winds 
and  the  clouds  all  over  the  continent,  is  able  to  tell  us 
day  by  day,  whether  or  not  we  shall  need  our  overcoats 
and  umbrellas. 

It  is  law,  too,  that  gives  us  the  order  of  the  seasons. 
Its  mighty  arm  swings  us  through  the  circuit  of  the 
zodiac,  and  fills  our  hearts  and  lives  with  the  variety  of 
the  year.  In  this  confidence  we  know  that  "  summer 
and  winter,  seedtime  and  harvest,  shall  not  fail." 

So  in  our  individual  life.  There  is  no  part  of  our 
being  that  law  does  not  touch,  mould,  and  direct.  By 
law  we  make  every  motion  of  our  bodies ;  by  it  we 
breathe,  and  enliven  and  color  the  blood  \  by  it  the 
blood  courses  vein  and  artery,  repairing  nature's  waste 
and  wear;  by  it  the  heart  beats,  and  the  brain  thinks, 
the  eye  drinks  in  beauty  and  the  ear,  sounds;  it  com-\ 
passes  us  round,  and  hedges  us  in  on  every  side;  but 
do  we  feel  it  a  bondage  ?  Not  if  we  are  healthy.  The 
least  lawlessness  is  incipient  disease;  more  becomes 
insanity  or  death :  so  law  is  life.  S 

And  all   this  is   just   as  true   of   thought  and  feeling, 


v 

LOWE  IN  LAW.  141 


the  intellectual  and  the  spiritual  realms.  Law  and  order \ 
are  everywhere  the  conditions  of  life,  of  happiness,  of 
goodness,  and  of  beauty.  So  wide  is  its  sweep,  and  so 
grand  is  its  unity,  that  Herbert  Spencer  has  been  able  to 
think  and  to  formulate  in  a  few  sentences  a  law  of  the 
universe,  of  which  all  things  are  only  illustrations.  This 
is  the  grandest  achievement  of  the  intellect  of  man.  / 

Now,  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  it  is  pretty  well  settled 
that  we  shall  have  to  accept  this  universality  of  law  as  a 
fact.  All  the  knowledge  of  the  world  points  to  it  more 
and  more  definitely  as  true.  Law  and  order  reign. 
Curses  do  not  bring  storms,  nor  prayers  avert  them. 
Every  department  of  the  universe  has  its  own  laws  and 
conditions ;  and  events  are  controlled  solely  by  these. 
Not  only  is  this  so,  but  the  highest  religious  conception 
of  God  is  coming  to  demand  just  such  a  state  of  things. 
A  God  who  constructs  a  system,  and  then  has  to  keep 
coming  in  to  regulate  and  re-arrange  its  working ;  who 
changes  his  mind,  and  fixes  things  over  after  another  and 
a  new  plan  ;  who  could  not  see  and  order  all  things  from 
the  beginning ;  who  submits  to  having  his  elbow  jogged, 
and  to  take  wiser  suggestions  from  men  than  any  he  had 
before  thought  of ;  who  comes  to  help  out  of  difficulties 
that  his  own  foresight  might  have  provided  against ;  who 
has  to  keep  mending  and  looking  after  things  in  an 
abnormal  way,  —  such  a  God,  it  is  beginning  to  be  seen, 
is  only  a  being  created  in  the  image  of  man,  and  in  the 
image  of  a  man  who  is  not  over-wise  or  over-good,  either. 
To  him  who  has  gained  a  higher  conception  of  God,  a 


142  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

conception  so  grand  as  to  be  in  keeping  with  universal 
and  eternal  law  and  order,  it  seems  impiety  and  irrever- 
ence to  think  of  him  after  any  lower  fashion ;  just  as  to 
the  ordinary  Christian  it  would  seem  impiety  to  represent 
his  God  as  capable  of  being  pleased  with  the  groans  and 
the  burning  of  a  human  sacrifice,  or  as  being  liable  to 
human  ignorance.  So  any  thought  of  God  less  high  and 
grand  than  that  which  embraces  universal  and  eternal  law 
and  order  seems  irreverent  and  degrading. 

But  now  let  us  see  if  there  is  any  place  for  love  in  such 
a  system.  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  the  heart  cries  out 
for  love  just  as  loudly  as  the  brain  calls  for  law;  and, 
further,  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  to  gain  order  for  the 
head  at  the  price  of  the  loss  of  happiness  and  trust  for 
the  heart  is  a  most  questionable  advantage,  or  even  a 
positive  loss ;  for  the  heart  and  its  needs  are  as  real  and 
true  and  high  a  part  of  human  life,  as  is  the  knowledge 
and  thought  of  the  brain.  I  even  believe  that  happiness 
and  peace  are  so  necessary  a  part  of  life,  that  any  life  is 
a  failure  that,  in  the  long-run,  does  not  gain  them.  If  I 
would  hesitate  to  say,  "  Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  'tis  folly 
to  be  wise,"  I  would  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  would 
oppose  knowledge,  did  I  not  believe  that  its  outcome 
would  result  in  the  highest  and  truest  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  man.  So  I  would  not  slight  the  heart  and  its 
affections,  even  for  the  sake  of  the  grandest  truths  and 
laws. 

Instead,  then,  of  doubting  about  the  answer  to  the 
question  as  to  whether  there  is  any  place  for  love  in  a 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  143 


system  of  universal  law,  I  am  ready  to  make  the  claim 
that  there  is  no  place  in  it  for  any  thing  but  love.  It  is 
all  one  complete,  perfect  expression  of  the  wisest  and 
highest  love.     Consider,  — 

(1)  That  we  know  love  and  joy  as  facts  of  science. 
They  reach  from  the  depth  to  the  height,  and  sweep 
through  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  animate  life  on 
the  globe.  The  whole  natural  and  healthful  creation  is 
one  scene  of  sentient  gladness.  The  fish  balanced  in 
his  crystal  home,  or  darting  here  and  there  like  a  beam 
of  light,  is  full  to  his  utmost  capacity  of  gladness. 
Healthy  life  itself  is  an  ecstasy.  The  insects  that  glitter 
and  buzz  in  the  sun  are  as  full  of  joy  as  a  liquid  drop 
is  full  of  water.     And  in  June 

"  The  little  bird  sits  at  his  door  in  the  sun, 
A-tilt  like  a  blossom  among  the  leaves, 
And  lets  his  illumined  being  o'errun 
With  the  deluge  of  summer  it  receives." 

And  so  all  through  human  life,  just  so  far  as  there  is 
health,  harmony,  and  right  adjustment  between  man  and 
his  conditions,  there  is  a  music  of  joy,  like  that  of  an 
instrument  when  kept  in  tune.  And  from  the  mother- 
bird  in  her  nest,  or  the  father-bird  gathering  food  for  the 
young,  clear  up  through  every  grade,  till  you  sit  beside 
the  human  mother  rocking  her  cradled  babe,  or  watching 
over  the  restless  sleep  of  some  sick  darling,  there  is  every- 
where the  all-pervading  and  ever-growing  love  and  tender- 
ness that  are  the  glory  of  the  highest  humanity.     Now,  all 


V 

*44  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


this  love  and  tenderness  are  facts  of  life ;  and  as  such 
they  are  a  part  of  the  infinite  manifestation  of  God. 
They  have  a  source  as  much  as  do  mountains  and  fossil 
bones.  And  we  may  justly  reason  that  the  fountain  is 
more  than  all  the  streams.  For  the  growth  of  civilizations 
is  the  growth  of  love  and  care  and  help.  Since,  then,/ 
these  are  growing  still,  with  no  sign  of  diminution,  we 
may  believe  that  the  source  is  so  much  greater  than  all 
we  see  as  to  justify  us  in  asserting  that  all  human  love 
and  tenderness  and  care  are  only  faint  glimmers  and 
reflections  of  the  divine.  Your  tenderest  mother-love  is 
no  more  when  compared  to  the  divine  love  than  the  shim- 
mer of  moonbeams  on  the  water  is  equal  to  the  glory  of 
the  noonday  sun. 

Law,  or  no  law :  so  much  we  may  say  we  know. 
To  see,  then,  whether  this  fact  is  contradicted  or  over- 
balanced by  the  fact  of  universal  law,  let  us  go  on,  — 

(2)  To  inquire,  What  is  law  ?  On  this  point  there  is  a 
strange  and  wide-spread  misconception.  Theology  has 
so  long  taught  that  nature  was  opposed  to,  or  at  least 
outside  of  and  separate  from,  God,  that  it  is  a  long  and 
difficult  task  to  correct  the  error.  Natural  law,  then,  is 
only  God's  method  of  working.  The  highest  science 
teaches  that  matter  and  force  and  law  are  only  manifesta- 
tions of  God  to  human  consciousness.  This  is  the  highest 
wisdom  of  all  the  ages.  Since  God  is  equally  every- 
where, and  in  all  things,  science  knows  no  distinction  of 
natural  and  supernatural,  or  of  strange  things  from  one 
side  breaking  through  and   interfering  with  the   reirular 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  145/ 


on-going  of  affairs  on  the  other  side.  All  law,  then,^ 
everywhere  is  natural ;  and  this  natural  law  is  simply  God 
working.  And  even  if  we  could  not  observe  it  all  about  . 
us,  the  uniformity  of  his  working  would  be  a  necessary 
inference  from  his  perfection.  To  speak  after  human 
analogies,  if,  the  first  time  God  ever  did  any  particular 
thing,  he  did  it  the  best  way,  then,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, he  must  always  do  it  the  same  way :  otherwise 
he  must  do  it  in  some  poorer  way,  and  that  would  be  a 
display  of  imperfection  and  unwisdom  destructive  of  our 
very  idea  of  God.  God's  perfection,  then,  demands  uni- 
versal and  eternal  law  as  its  natural  expression.  When 
we  wish  for  a  break  in  this  perfect  system,  we  are  wish- 
ins:  for  the  dethronement  or  the  degradation  of  God. 
But,— 

(3)  Take    notice  of   the   character   of  the  working  of\ 
natural    law.      It   is   always   and   everywhere   for   good/. 
There  is  no  one  single  natural  law  in  all  the  universe,  so 
far  as  we  know,  whose  normal  working  is  not  for  good. 
Why,  then,  would   we   have  them   weakened,  broken   in 
upon,  or  changed  ?     All   evil  is  only  law  broken  or  dis- 
obeyed.    Even  pain  is  only  a  signal  marked  "  Danger !  " 
that  is  set  up  along   the  railways,   at  the  switches  and 
crossings  of  human  life.     If  it  were  not  painful  for  the 
moths  to  get  singed  in  the  gas-flame,  they  would  burn 
themselves  up  in  its  luring  brightness.     If  pain  were  not* 
the  result  of  breaking  the  laws  of  the  body,  who  would 
be  careful  to  keep  in  health  ?     Were  it  not  for  the  painsy 
of  discontent  in  low  conditions,  what  force  would   have 


J 

146  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

driven  man  on  and  up  into  civilization  ?  It  is  just  this 
perpetual  unrest  and  sorrow  in  conditions  of  incomplete- 
ness and  maladjustment,  that  compel  the  perpetual  strug- 
gle for  higher  and  still  higher  forms  of  life.  It  is  a  seriN 
ous  question  as  to  whether  any  useless  pain  can  anywhere 
be  found.  Certain  it  is  that  the  natural,  healthful  work-, 
ing  of  all  the  forces  of  the  world  issue  in  goodness  and 
joy.  Health  and  harmony  and  obedience  are  everywhere 
music.  Pain  is  simply  God  saying,  "  Get  out  of  danger,'\ 
or,  "  Go  up  higher."  y 

A  fearful  picture  is  sometimes  drawn  of  the  battles,  the 
rapine,  the  blood,  the  mutual  devouring,  of  the  animal 
world ;  and  the  argument  for  nature's  cruelty  is  drawn 
from  it.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  one  huge  fallacy.  We 
carry  our  human  sympathies  and  hopes  and  fears  down 
into  this  lower  life,  and  judge  it  by  our  standard.  Look 
at  the  facts.  Animal  life  in  the  main,  and  all  through,  is 
happy :  they  are  content  and  satisfied.  But  death  is  a  part 
of  the  law  of  life  :  so  all  must  die.  This  is  no  wrong. 
A  good  that  I  keep  for  a  year  is  not  an  evil,  because  it  is 
then  withdrawn.  Now,  it  is  doubtless  true  that,  in  being 
slain  and  devoured,  the  lower  animals  suffer  less  than 
they  would  by  lingering,  and  dying  a  natural  death,  per- 
haps from  starvation.  They  suffer  from  fear  so  long  as 
this  fear  can  aid  their  escape ;  but  it  is  well  known  that, 
in  almost  all  cases  when  the  prey  is  caught,  fear  is  gone, 
paralysis  takes  its  place,  and  death  is  painless.  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone relates  that,  when  the  lion's  paw  was  on  him,  he 
was  stunned,  and  had  lost  all  fear;   and  a  similar  thing 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  147 


is  true  of  all  the  victims  of  carnivorous  birds  and  beasts. 
Natural  law,  then,  everywhere  works  for  good ;  and  until 
some  law  is  discovered  whose  normal  working  is  evil,  the 
statement  that  law  may  justly  be  called  an  expression  of 
love  must  stand  unimpeached. 

Law,  then,  makes  the  order,  beauty,  and  music  of  the 
heavens.  This  is  the  true  "music  of  the  spheres."  It  is 
only  law  that  makes  civilization  possible.  It  is  because 
we  know  the  laws  of  earth  and  iron  are  constant,  that  we 
can  build  railroads ;  and  because  the  laws  of  steam  are 
changeless,  we  can  run  our  engines  upon  them.  With 
faith  in  the  unchanging  laws  of  wind  and  wave,  we  build 
and  sail  our  ships  all  over  the  globe.  On  the  laws  of  gas, 
we  build  and  arrange  the  lamps  that  turn  our  streets  from 
darkness  into  illumination.  The  law  of  electricity  assures 
us  that  the  cable  that  to-day  takes  our  message  to  London 
will  not  be  useless  to-morrow.  By  the  laws  of  nature  we 
erect  the  stores  and  houses,  and  lay  out  the  streets,  of  our 
cities.  It  is  the  stability  of  God  in  our  bricks  and  stones 
and  timbers,  that  makes  us  rest  at  night,  with  no  fear  that 
he  will  change  his  mind  before  morning,  and  let  the  whole 
thing  down  about  our  ears.  On  our  faith  in  the  laws  of 
light,  we  put  the  plate-glass  in  our  windows,  and  cut  our 
jewels.  Because  laws  change  not,  we  have  to-day  the 
pictures  and  statues  of  the  masters  of  the  olden  time.  It 
is  the  stability  of  the  laws  of  human  life  that  makes  it 
possible  to  frame  constitutions  and  establish  governments. 
If,  in  the  long-run,  humanity  were  capricious,  statesman- 
ship would   be   impossible.      Art  and  science  would  be 


1 48V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


unknown  but  for  law,  that  holds  all  things  fast  and  firm. 
Commerce  means  trust  in  the  general  stability  of  human 
nature.  Crimes  and  betrayals  are  only  insignificant  ex- 
ceptions. That  Shakspere  and  Homer  hold  their  place 
in  human  thought,  is  only  because  the  law  of  human 
thought  is  uniform.  There  could  be  no  growth  or  devel- 
opment of  religion,  were  it  not  for  the  constant  elements 
of  human  thinking  and  human  conduct.  Were  there  no 
law  in  character,  if  it  were  the  caprice  of  a  self-moved 
will,  how  could  we  ever  trust  each  other?  That  a  man 
had  perilled  his  life  for  virtue  to-day,  would  be  no  guar- 
anty that  he  might  not  commit  murder  to-morrow.  That 
there  is  a  cosmos  at  all,  a  universe  in  which  life  and 
thought  and  knowledge  and  progress  are  possible,  is  just 
because  of  the  universality  of  law. 

I  do  not  wish  any  gospel,  then,  to  deliver  me  from  the 
law.     To  deliver  my  heart  from  the  law  would  be  to  make\ 
me  capricious,  as  likely  to  hate  as  love.     To  deliver  my 
brain   from   the   law   would   simply   mean   insanity.     To 
deliver  my  body  from  the  law  would  be  disease  or  death^' 
Whatever  lives,  lives  in,  and  whatever  grows,  grows  by, 
law.     Happiness  and  heaven  were  delusions  without  it. 
Law,  then,  is  the  all-present,  wise,  loving  God.     God's/ 
law  comes  in  the  light,  and  wakes  me  for  my  morning 
labor.     By  his  law  I  remember  yesterday,  and  link  the 
past  with  the  present.     By  his  law  I  break  my  nightly 
fast,  and  fit  my  body  for  duty  and  joy.     By  his  law  I  live 
and  think  and  labor  and  play.     By  his  law  I  build  my 
house,  and  do  my  work.     By  his  law  the  world  is  full  of 


LOVE  IN  LAW.  149 


life  and  brightness  and  opportunity.  By  his  law  the 
languor  of  sleep  once  more  comes  over  me,  while  still  his 
law  makes  my  bed,  and  rocks  me  to  rest  on  the  old  earth's 
bosom,  "  as  she  dances  about  the  sun." 

Do  we,  then,  need  any  providence  as  a  protection 
against  or  deliverance  from  nature  and  law  ?  That  could 
only  mean  that  we  need  to  have  God  defend  us  against 
himself.  God  is  in  law,  and  law  is  in  God.  This  uni- 
versal law  is  only  universal,  all-encompassing,  tireless, 
changeless  providence.  It  hurts  us  only  when  we  trans- 
gress. But,  then,  it  is  for  our  good  to  be  hurt,  and  so 
warned,  lifted  up,  and  delivered.  "The  law  of  the 
Lord,"  then,  "  is  perfect,"  perfect  wisdom,  perfect  power, 
and  perfect  love.  May  we  not,  then,  on  our  part,  exclaim 
with  the  old-time  Psalmist,  only  with  fuller  meaning,  "  O, 
how  love  I  thy  law !  it  is  my  meditation  all  the  day "  ? 
And  may  we  not  fitly  close  with  the  upward-reaching  cry, 
"  Teach  me,  O  Lord,  the  way  of  thy  statutes,  and  I  shall 
keep  it  unto  the  end  "  ?  For  "  the  law  is  holy  and  just 
and  good." 


VIII. 

PRAYER. 

The  place  which  prayer  holds  in  the  popular  thought, 
the  controversy  in  regard  to  it,  and  the  consequent  doubt 
and  confusion,  —  these  make  it  a  topic  of  the  first  im- 
portance both  to  the  understanding  and  the  heart.  To 
glance  at  its  origin  and  development,  and  then  to  study 
the  popular  beliefs  in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge,  and 
so,  if  possible,  to  gain  a  position  both  rational  and  devout, 
—  this  is  my  present  purpose. 

I  have  shown  that  the  early  objects  of  human  worship 
were  not  persons  to  be  loved.  The  gods  of  the  childhood 
of  the  world  were  beings  who  filled  the  souls  of  men  with 
dread.  The  first  altars  were  built  by  fear ;  and  the  first 
prayers  were  deprecations,  pleas,  and  entreaties  intended 
to  ward  off  impending  ill.  It  was  common  among  the 
early  tribes  to  worship  the  spirit  of  their  ancestor,  who 
was  supposed  to  watch  over  his  descendants,  and  to  hold 
their  fortunes  in  his  hand.  This  worship  did  not  spring 
from  any  special  love  or  veneration;  but  they  believed 
that  their  tribal  founder  was  jealous  of  his  memory  and 
150 


PRAYER.  151 


honor,  and  that,  if  they  did  not  keep  alive  his  name 
and  his  worship,  he  had  both  the  power  and  the  dis- 
position to  do  them  incalculable  harm.  So  their  altars 
and  their  prayers  were  only  a  sort  of  tribute  paid  to  keep 
their  god  in  good  humor,  and  thus  to  buy  his  favor  and 
protection. 

And  a  similar  idea  prompted  the  aboriginal  worship  of 
the  forces  of  nature.  The  forces  and  movements  that 
pressed  most  closely  upon  them  were  those  of  hunger  and 
cold  and  storm  ;  forces  that  hurt  them,  and  of  which  they 
stood  in  continual  fear.  Thus  their  prayers  were  not  at 
all  in  the  nature  of  loving  communion,  as  of  a  child  with 
father  or  mother.  They  did  not  love  their  gods,  nor  care 
for  their  friendship  or  fellowship  for  its  own  sake.  They 
only  stood  in  dread  of  what  the  gods  might  do,  and 
thought  it  the  safest  way  to  keep  on  as  good  terms  with 
them  as  possible.  So  their  worship  took  on  a  sort  of 
commercial  aspect.  They  thought  to  buy  favors,  or  at 
least  freedom  from  injury,  as  one  would  put  a  bribe  into 
the  hands  of  an  unjust  judge,  or  purchase  with  a  gift  the 
good-will  of  an  irresponsible  despot.  When  they  went 
out  to  war  against  their  enemy,  they  first  sought  the  altars 
or  temples  of  their  god,  endeavored  to  learn  his  disposi- 
tion in  the  matter,  appealed  to  his  ambition  as  against  the 
honor  that  the  enemies'  god  might  gain  if  he  did  not 
show  himself  the  stronger ;  they  promised  special  worship 
and  offerings  if  they  came  back  victor ;  and  then,  after  the 
battle,  they  came  and  hung  their  trophies  in  his  temple, 
and  ascribed  to  him  the  praise  of  their  conquest.     You 


152  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

find  ideas  like  these  even  among  the  Hebrews.  Moses  is 
represented  as  appealing  to  the  pride  and  ambition  of 
Jehovah.  Weary  with  the  obstinacy  and  obtuseness  of 
Israel,  Jehovah  threatens  to  destroy  them.  Then  Moses 
pleaded  with  him,  and  said,  "  Only  think  how  Egypt  and 
her  gods  will  exult,  if,  after  leading  thy  people  into  the 
wilderness,  thou  leavest  them  to  perish,  as  though  thou 
wast  not  able  to  lead  them  on  to  the  conquest  of  the 
Promised  Land."  And  the  plea  prevailed,  and  the  people 
were  spared. 

The  old-time  gods  were  accustomed  to  pray  to  each 
other ;  for  as  each  had  his  department  of  the  world,  if  he 
wished  to  gain  any  end  beyond  his  control,  he  must  do 
it  through  the  favor  of  the  deity  in  command.  /Eneas 
and  his  followers  are  on  their  way  from  Troy  to  Italy, 
when  Juno,  who  is  their  enemy  and  wishes  their  destruc- 
tion, goes  to  ^Eolus,  the  god  of  the  winds,  and  by  a  con- 
descending appeal  to  his  pride  and  friendship,  and  by  the 
promise  of  a  magnificent  gift,  she  persuades  him  to  let 
loose  his  winds,  and  raise  a  tempest  on  the  sea,  so  that 
the  Trojan  fleet  may  be  destroyed.  At  the  same  time, 
Venus  goes  to  Jupiter,  and  begs  for  their  deliverance  ; 
and  the  king  of  the  Olympians  sends  a  messenger  to  see 
that  the  storm  is  allayed,  and  the  ships  are  permitted  to 
find  a  harbor  of  safety. 

Such  were  the  early  ideas  of  the  place  and  the  work  of 
prayer. 

All  through  mediaeval  Christianity,  similar  ideas  pre- 
vailed.    Each   city  or   people  or  convent  had  its  special 


PRAYER.  153^ 


tutelary  saint ;  and  to  him.  as  to  a  favorite  at  court,  their 
petitions  were  addressed.  He  was  supposed  to  have 
influence  in  heaven,  and  to  look  after  their  peculiar  and 
personal  wants.  God,  to  them,  was  not  the  all-present, 
watchful  Father.  They  thought  they  needed  special  in- 
tercessors and  friends  at  the  heavenly  court.  And  even 
to-day,  throughout  Romish  Christendom,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  prayers  go  up  to  the  saints  and  to  Mary,  whose 
tender  mother  heart  is  supposed  to  be  most  easily  touched 
and  moved  at  their  requests.  And  a  thought  like  this 
last  seems  to  be  infecting  all  Protestantism.  The  Bible 
nowhere  gives  countenance  to  making  Jesus  the  object 
of  prayer;  and  most  intelligent  and  thoughtful  writers 
oppose  it  as  unscriptural  and  wrong :  but  in  the  popular 
mind  the  Father  has  come  very  largely  to  represent  the 
law,  while  Jesus  is  the  embodiment  of  the  loving  and 
saving  God ;  and  thus  to  him  the  tenderness  and  love  of 
all  hearts  turn,  and  to  him  are  addressed  the  pleadings 
and  the  prayers  of  the  anxious  and  fearful  souls. 

The  common  idea  of  prayer  to-day  is,  in  the  main, 
that  of  the  ancient  heathen  world.  As  I  have  many 
times  heard  it  from  the  lips  of  a  prominent  evangelist, 
"  Prayer  is  the  power  that  moves  the  arm  that  moves  the 
world."  It  is  supposed  that  by  it  God  can  be  prevailed^ 
on  to  do  many  things  he  otherwise  would  not.  Stilling!/ 
fleet,  an  old  English  writer,  says,  "  Prayer  is  supposed  a 
means  to  change  the  person  to  whom  we  pray."  It  is 
believed  to  have  power  to  bring  to  pass  the  things  prayed 
for  all  over  the  world. 


154  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Within  a  few  years,  '.i  Scotland,  the  whole  Church  was 
ordered  to  hold  a  service  of  fasting  and  prayer  for  deliv- 
erance from  a  severe  disease  among  the  cattle.  Only  a 
year  or  two  since,  the  whole  Church  of  England  was 
holding  a  special  service  for  the  recovery  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  was  sick.  Miiller,  in  his  "  Life  of  Trust," 
claims  that  he  has  established,  and  that  he  constantly 
supports,  an  immense  orphan-house  simply  by  prayer. 
He  seems  entirely  to  overlook  the  fact  that  such  a  claim, 
continually  republished  and  kept  before  the  popular  mind, 
is  the  most  ingenious  and  effective  kind  of  advertising 
possible.  It  is  a  perpetual  appeal  and  prayer  to  the  pop- 
ular sympathy  and  help.  To  one  who  at  all  appreciates 
the  springs  that  move  the  popular  heart  and  the  popular 
imagination,  there  is  nothing  strange  about  it.  Dr.  Cullis, 
of  Boston,  makes  a  similar  claim  concerning  his  Consump- 
tives' Home ;  and  yet  hardly  an  institution  in  the  city- 
is  more  persistently  advertised.  There  are  various 
ways  of  appealing  to  the  religious  sympathy  of  the 
churches,  and  thus  of  exciting  the  popular  interest  in 
the  piety  and  the  wonder  of  the  work  he  is  doing.  In  one 
of  his  books  of  sermons,  Mr.  Talmage  ascribes  the  re- 
markable success  and  safety  of  a  certain  line  of  ocean- 
steamers  to  the  fact  that  the  wife  of  one  of  the  head 
proprietors  makes  each  ship,  as  it  starts  from  port,  the 
subject  of  special  prayer.  This  theory  is  slightly  inter- 
fered with  by  the  knowledge  that  another  line,  that  has 
no  proprietor's  wife  to  pray  for  it,  has  lost  less  ships  in 
thirty  years  than  it  has.     And,  besides,  were  this  all  true, 


PRAYER.  155 


J 


insurance-companies  would  be  an  impertinence,  as  well  as 
a  useless  outlay  of  money.  Most  of  our  churches  in 
America  have  ceased  praying  for  rain ;  though  still  the 
annual  fast  is  appointed,  and  is  supposed  to  have  some 
influence  on  the  general  welfare  of  the  people. 

Now,  all  these  illustrations  simply  point  out  and  illus- ^ 
trate  the  popular  belief  that  prayer  is  able  to  induce  God 
to  produce  certain  definite  results  in  the  natural  world 
that  would  not  take  place  except  for  the  prayers.  You 
will  notice,  also,  that  this  whole  conception  of  the  nature 
and  office  of  prayer  implies  that  God  is  a  person  outside 
of  and  separate  from  natural  forces  and  laws,  who,  at 
the  request  of  man,  comes  in  to  interfere  with  and  change 
the  method  of  their  regular  working.  / 

Along  with  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  the  growth 
of  scientific  knowledge  of  the  world,  there  is  a  growing 
a  wide-spread  doubt  as  to  whether  prayer  has  any  such 
power,  or  produces  any  such  results.  Whether  for  good 
or  evil,  whether  well  founded  or  ill  founded,  this  doubt  is 
a  fact.  It  is  a  doubt  that  touches  and  paralyzes  the  arm 
of  the  Church  itself.  The  ordinary  prayer-meeting  is  not 
attended  in  any  such  way  as  indicates  a  vital  belief  that 
it  has  power  to  convert  the  heathen,  to  save  the  husbands, 
brothers,  fathers,  of  its  supporters.  People  go  from  a 
sense  of  duty,  or  as  they  feel  inclined ;  and  if  it  is  made 
a  sort  of  lecture,  and  the  lecturer  is  interesting,  then  the 
room  will  be  full.  But  if  men  believed  that  it  was  really^ 
a  power  to  move  God  to  their  wills,  how  could  they  excuse 
their  negligence?     The  constant  appeal   and  devices  of/ 


156  \l  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  minister,  to  get  even  church-members  to  come,  show 
how  little  real  faith  they  have  in  it. 

Let  us,  then,  inquire  whence  this  doubt  springs,  and 
whether  it  can  be  justified.  There  are  certain  great  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  holding  the  traditional  faith  that 
press  very  hard  on  thoughtful  minds. 

(1)  Prayers  for  changes  in  the  natural  course  oA 
things,  so  far  as  we  can  ordinarily  see,  are  not  answeredy 
This  is  so  generally  admitted,  that  I  have  often  heard 
ministers  tell  their  people  that  they  prayed  as  though  they 
did  not  expect  to  get  any  thing ;  and  that  probably  noth- 
ing would  be  so  much  of  a  surprise  and  astonishment  to 
them  as  to  find  their  requests  granted.  Now,  people  in 
that  state  of  mind  cannot  have  received  what  they  asked 
for,  very  often.  And,  for  my  part,  I  cannot  be  particu- 
larly surprised  that  they  do  give  up  looking  for  it.  "  I 
have  been  praying  for  the  conversion  of  such  a  one 
twenty  years,  and  he  is  not  converted  yet,"  said  a  noted 
minister.  Is  it  strange  that  people  ask,  "  What,  then,  is 
the  use  of  prayer  ?  "  But  it  is  said,  more  prayers  are  not 
answered,  because  people  do  not  pray  in  faith.  So  the 
mediums  tell  us  that  the  seance  is  not  successful,  because 
sceptics  are  in  the  circle.  But  if  the  spirits  are  in  ear- 
nest, why  do  they  not  astonish  and  confute  the  sceptics 
by  offering  facts  that  would  compel  belief  ?  and  if  God 
really  wishes  to  answer  human  prayers,  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  why  does  he  not  astonish  his  listless  children  with 
answers,  so  that  they  cannot  help  believing  ? 

It   is  this  last  rational  thought  that   gave  life    to  the 


PRAYER.  1 57  ^ 


recent  celebrated  "  prayer-gauge "  controversy  in  Eng- 
land. And  if  prayer  is  a  real  and  definite  power  for  the 
healing  of  the  sick,  I  see  nothing  irrational  or  impious  in 
the  test  that  was  proposed.  In  the  Old  Testament,  God 
is  represented  as  complying  with  man-suggested  condi- 
tions so  as  to  demonstrate  his  presence  and  power.  Has 
he  changed,  so  that  he  is  not  willing  to  do  it  now  ? 

A  few  days  since,  the  newspapers  reported  the  miracu- 
lous cure  of  a  sick  woman  as  the  result  of  Dr.  Cullis's 
prayer.  If  true,  why  is  not  the  road  to  Grove  Hall 
thronged  with  the  lame,  blind,  and  diseased,  going  to  be 
healed  ?  Why  does  he  keep  his  "  Home  "  at  all,  at  an 
enormous  expense  that  might  be  used  in  other  beneficent 
ways  ?  Cure  them  all,  and  then  travel  the  country  as  the 
universal  healer.  I  have  it  from  a  man  who  was  a  rela- 
tive, that  Joe  Smith,  the  Mormon  prophet,  healed  a  child 
of  a  chronic  disease,  by  the  laying-on  of  hands.  There 
is  evidence  to  prove  that  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes  is  continu- 
ally curing  her  devotees.  And  a  large  mass  of  proof  can 
be  brought  to  show  how  the  bones  of  saints  and  bits  of 
the  true  cross  have  always  exerted  such  power. 

The  simple  facts  are  these  :  Talmage  prays  for  his  wifeA 
and  she  gets  well.  Another  man,  presumably  as  pious  as 
he,  prays  for  his  wife,  and  she  dies.  A  third  man's  wife 
gets  well  although  she  is  not  prayed  for.  The  laws  of/ 
health  and  disease  work  all  over  the  world,  and  produce 
their  proper  and  natural  results ;  and,  so  far  as  we  can 
settle  by  the  evidence,  the  praying  or  not  praying  has 
nothing  to  do  with  it.     Gen.  Butler  goes  to  New  Orleans ; 


158^  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  the  saints  of  the  region  pray  that  "  Yellow  Jack,"  as 
they  call  the  prevalent  fever,  may  waste  away  and  destroy 
his  army.  Not  being  given  to  piety,  he  does  not  pray 
against  it;  but  having  a  sense  of  natural  cause  and 
effect,  he  looks  after  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  city ; 
and  "  Yellow  Jack  "  postpones  his  annual  visitation. 

(2)  Superadded  to  this  doubt  growing  out  of  observed 
facts,  is  the  essentially  modern  doubt  that  has  its  root  in 
the  growing  knowledge  of  the  reign  of  law.  There  is 
growing  up  an  irresistible  belief,  based  on  facts  that  can 
be  verified,  that  this  universe  is  one  ruled  by  law  andS 
order.  Cause  and  effect  are  so  intimately  linked  together 
that  the  slightest  movement  of  the  world's  affairs  to-day 
is  a  link  in  a  chain  that  stretches  back  into  a  past  eter- 
nity. The  glance  of  a  ray  of  this  morning's  rising  sun,/ 
the  tremble  of  a  twig  in  the  wind,  the  form  of  the  smoke- 
wreath  that  hovered  above  your  chimney  and  then  melted 
out  of  sight,  the  curl  of  a  wreath  of  mist  that  floats  on  a 
mountain's  top,  the  eddy  of  the  little  cloud  of  dust  that 
the  wind-gust  whirls  across  the  street,  —  these  all  are  as 
much  a  part  of  the  fixed  and  determined  order  of  the 
world  as  Mont  Blanc  is  a  fixed  and  definite  peak  in 
the  Alps ;  and  to  change  the  mist-form  or  the  wind- 
current  were  as  much  a  miracle  as  to  hurl  Mont  Blanc 
with  its  roots  upward  into  the  Mediterranean.  The 
prayer  that  asks  that  this  day's  weather  may  be  changed, 
even  to  the  blotting  out  of  one  cloud,  or  the  adding  or 
taking  away  one  rain-drop,  asks  so  stupendous  a  thing 
as  that  the  whole  order  of  creation  from  the  beginning 


PRAYER.  159^ 


may  be  changed  to  suit  the  whim  or  convenience  of  an 
hour. 

(3)  Then,  again,  the  common  belief  is  rendered  absurd* 
by  the   contradictory  prayers  of  men.     You  pray  for  a 
bright   day,  that  your  excursion  to   the  country  may  be 
pleasant,  or  that  your  hay  may  dry  in  the  field.     Another 
man  prays  for  rain,  that  his  parched  potato-field  may  be 
revived.      Which  will  God   hear?      One  prayer  at  least/ 
must  be  denied.     Two  ships  are  at  sea.     One  wishes  an 
east  wind,  and  the  other  a  west.     Others  want  neither 
east  nor  west.     Dr.  Bushnell  once  suggested  that  the  ma- 
jority prayer  would  win.     A  very  large    and   very  pious 
crew  would  seem  to  be  a  necessity,   then,  so  that  they 
might  out-pray  the  other  ship.     When  you  think  of  it  in 
this  way,  it  comes  to  look  as  though  these  prayers,  instead 
of  being  piety,  might  very  easily  come  to  be  the  quintes- 
sence of  selfishness.     Is  it  not  quite  as  well  to  leave  God 
to  look  after  the  general  good,  and  not  think  to  tease  him 
into  the  favoritism  of    neglecting    the  common  interest, 
that  may  demand  dry  weather,  for  the  sake  of  watering 
your  flower-garden  ?     Heaven  has  larger  interests  on  hand 
than  the  making  of  itself  your  private  watering-pot.     It 
looks  very  much  like  the  little  boy  who  wanted  the  cap- 
tain to  stop  the  ship,  because  he  had  lost  his  apple  over- 
board. / 
But  a  stronger  objection  than   all  these  roots  in  piety*' 
itself,  and  gets  its  weightest  reason  in  reverence  and  trust. 
If  God  is  indeed  perfectly  powerful,  wise,   and  good,  it 
becomes  the  worst  of  all  scepticism  to  suppose  that  God 


160  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

will  neglect  the  smallest  interest  of  any,  the  very  least,  of 
his  creatures.  In  the  hands  of  such  a  God,  the  poorest 
worm  and  the  grandest  archangel  must  be  alike  safe* 
There  is  a  mother  in  Boston  who  devotedly  loves  her 
children.  She  is  exceptionally  intelligent,  and  knows 
what  is  for  their  truest  welfare.  She  is  wealthy,  and  able 
to  command  all  means  for  carrying  out  her  purposes. 
One  of  her  children  is  wayward,  and  gives  her  anxiety 
and  trouble.  Another  is  sick  and  in  danger  of  death. 
Suppose  you  should  go  to  her  each  morning,  and  with 
tears  in  your  eyes  and  sobs  on  your  lips  beseech  and 
entreat  her  to  do  her  plain  and  simple  duty  by  these  chil- 
dren, —  beg  her  to  be  kind  and  helpful  to  the  wayward 
boy ;  beg  her  to  have  a  physician  and  nurse  for  the  sick 
girl.  Such  action  on  your  part  would  be  gross  and  inex- 
cusable insult;  and,  if  you  repeated  it,  she  would  be  justi- 
fied in  calling  the  police  for  your  benefit.  And  yet  half 
of  our  prayers  imply  that,  unless  we  keep  jogging  his 
memory,  or  stirring  up  his  benevolence  and  pity,  the  ten- 
der and  all-wise  and  loving  Father  in  heaven  will  either 
not  remember,  or  will  not  care,  to  be  decently  kind  and 
regardful  of  the  welfare  of  his  children.  I  have  often 
heard  prayers,  that  people  thought  were  pious,  that  made 
me  indignant,  and  that  seemed  to  me  simple  blasphemy. 
A  hundred  times,  as  a  boy,  I  have  heard  a  man  say  in 
prayer,  "  It  is  time  for  thee,  0  Lord,  to  work  !  "  —  as 
though  God  did  not  know  whether  it  was  time,  or  not ! 
Said  another,  "  O  God,  won't  you  do  any  thing  about  it  ?  " 
Said  an  evangelist,  "  I  am  going  to  be  in  this  city  only 


PR  A  YER.  161 


two  or  three  days  longer,  and,  O  Lord,  if  thou  art  going 
to  do  any  thing  for  the  salvation  of  this  town,  do  it 
now  !  "  —  egotism  and  blasphemy  combined,  with  a  doubt 
as  to  which  predominates.  Said  the  same  evangelist, 
"  Come  to  the  meeting  to-night,  for  there  are  going  to  be 
wonderful  displays  of  the  divine  power,"  —  as  though  he 
had  served  a  writ  on  the  Almighty,  and  was  going  to  pro- 
duce and  display  him  at  all  hazards  ! 

Just  because  God  is  loving  and  wise  and  mighty,  this  * 
kind  of  petition  is  not  only  useless,  but  insulting.  And/ 
I  make  the  charge  that  the  prominent  evangelism  of  the 
day,  in  its  frantic  appeal  to  God,  as  though  it  could  not 
trust  him  to  do  right,  displays  a  worse  and  more  open 
infidelity  than  any  it  lays  at  the  door  of  liberalism  or  of 
science.  The  quiet,  loving  life  of  the  child  at  home  is 
stronger  proof  of  trust  in  father  and  mother  than  that 
anxiety  that  appears  to  think  its  wants  will  not  be  at- 
tended to  unless  as  the  result  of  perpetual  begging.  The 
little  child  in  mother's  arms  looks  up  and  smiles,  and 
sinks  off  to  sleep.  It  does  not  need  to  beg  mother  to 
rock  its  slumber,  and  tuck  it  into  its  soft  crib.  Just  this 
child-relation  toward  God  I  believe  to  be  the  true  and 
pious  one.  Prattle  your  childish  wants  in  the  Father's 
ear  as  much  as  you  will :  only  remember  they  are  child- 
ish, and  that  he  knows  best,  and  that  the  best  of  all 
prayers,  after  all,  Is,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt." 

All  this  it  has  seemed  needful  to  say  before  coming  to 
that  which  is  most  important  of  all.     The  whole  question 
finds    simple,    natural,    and    satisfactory   solution    when 
ii 


1 62  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

looked  at  in  the  light  of  the  principles  of  evolution. 
What  is  that  principle  ?  This  :  All  the  myriad  forms, 
forces,  movements,  and  life  of  the  ui.iverse,  are  only  the 
varied  manifestation  of  the  divine  life  that  lives  in  and 
works  through  it  all.  The  divisions  between  natural  and 
supernatural,  sacred  and  secular,  are  broken  down.  All 
is  natural,  and  all  is  divine  and  sacred.  God  is  as  much 
in  the  law  of  gravitation  as  in  the  moral  law,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  The  sun,  the  winds,  the 
clouds,  the  rivers,  the  growing  fields,  all  speak  his  mys- 
terious name,  and  reveal  his  present  life  and  power.  The 
law  of  the  unfolding  flower  is  just  as  divine  as  is  the 
impulse  to  gratitude  or  prayer.  It  is  just  as  rational  and 
religious  to  expect  prayer  to  yield  to  gravitation,  as  it  is 
to  expect  gravitation  to  give  way  to  prayer.  God  does 
not  undo  with  one  hand  what  he  is  doing  with  the  other. 
Nature  is  no  longer  —  as  was  once  universally,  and  is 
still  too  commonly,  supposed  —  a  realm  opposed  to  or 
outside  of  God,  into  which  he  comes  at  times  to  counter- 
act its  forces,  or  to  deliver  from  its  power.  Nature  is 
God  at  work,  executing  his  own  wise  and  perfect  will. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  then,  that  the  impulsive  requests 
of  men  are  going  to  persuade  him  to  contravene  his  own 
purposes,  or  interfere  with  his  own  wise  work.  It  be- 
comes not  simply  unreasonable,  but  a  lack  of  intelligent 
piety,  to  expect  it. 

Do  I  take  the  position,  then,  that  man  can  bear  no 
active  part  in  the  midst  of  the  divine  operations  of  the 
world ;  that  he  is  only  to  sit  still,  and  let  the  great  forces 


PR  A  YER.  163  * 


drift  him  on  their  current,  like  a  leaf  on  the  surface  of  a  l  j 

torrent?     By  no   manner   of   means.     Man's  whole   life, >     \*l 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual,  depends  on  just  how     ^ 
much  and  how  wisely  he  "  interferes  "  with  God's  work- 
ing, bringing  to  pass  results  that  else  would  not  occur. 
But  he  must  do  this  intelligently,  and  according  to  the 
laws  of  that  department  in  which  he  expects  his  success,  y* 

To  illustrate  what  I  mean :  You  are  perfectly  aware 
of  the  practical  use  of  my  principle  in  the  common 
affairs  of  life.  You  do  not  abdicate  your  reason  here. 
If  you  wish  to  move  a  piece  of  stone  or  timber,  you  use  a 
lever  or  some  mechanical  force  :  you  never  think  you  can 
argue  it,  or  pray  it,  or  wish  it,  or  will  it,  from  one  place 
to  another  :  you  meet  mechanical  force  with  mechanical 
force.  If  you  desire  to  gain  admission  to  a  man's  favor, 
you  do  not  think  you  can  pry  his  heart  open  with  a  hand- 
spike, or  blow  it  open  with  nitro-glycerine  :  you  meet 
emotion  with  emotion.  If  you  wish  to  convince  a  man's 
intellect  of  a  doctrine  in  political  economy,  you  never 
think  of  applying  electricity  or  steam  :  you  meet  logic 
with  logic,  argument  with  argument,  proof  with  proof. 
All  this  only  means  that  you  recognize  the  natural  order 
and  fitness  of  things  which  teach  that,  in  any  particular 
department  of  life,  you  must  seek  for  results  in  accord- 
ance with  causes  that  naturally  belong  to  work  in  that 
department.     Apply  this  principle  now  to  our  subject. 

A  man  desires  a  profitable  crop  of  wheat  in  a  certain\ 
field.     The  laws  and  forces  of  agriculture  are  divine  laws, 
and  they  never  change.     Let  the  man,  then,  see  to  it  that 


1 64  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


his  field  is  one  naturally  adapted  to  the  raising  of  wheat 
Then  let  him  look  after  tillage  and  dressing,  and  the 
quality  of  his  seed,  and  its  proper  sowing.  In  all  ordi- 
nary seasons  he  can  thus  make  his  harvest  sure.  But/ 
prayer,  a  spiritual  force,  has  no  relation  to  sunshine  or 
rain  or  frost,  or  any  of  the  laws  of  agriculture.  And  to 
expect  that  he  can  neglect  his  proper  work,  and  then 
guard  against  or  retrieve  his  failure  by  prayer,  is  simple 
impiety.  It  is  expecting  that  God  will  put  a  premium  on 
laziness  and  ignorance  and  neglect,  —  crops  which  the 
divine  Husbandman  does  not  care  to  grow.  Through  the 
physical  laws  of  my  body,  God  speaks  to  me  with  a  voice 
as  sacred  and  commanding  as  that  said  to  have  been 
heard  on  Sinai ;  and  he  says,  Obey  these  laws,  and  you 
shall  have  and  keep  your  health.  Ignorantly  or  wilfully 
I  break  them,  and  am  sick.  God  still  says  to  me,  These 
my  laws  point  out  to  you  the  divine  way  back  to  health  ; 
but,  still  neglecting  these,  I  expect  to  circumvent  God's 
own  methods,  and  get  back  to  health  again  by  a  super- 
stitious talisman,  a  saint's  relics,  or  some  ignorant  enthu- 
siast's prayers.  It  is  just  as  presumptuous,  impious,  and 
foolish,  as  it  would  be  for  me  to  jump  off  Bunker  Hill 
Monument,  and  then  pray  to  God  to  suspend  gravitation 
and  make  my  fall  easy ;  or  as  if  I  should  touch  a  match 
to  a  keg  of  powder,  and  ask  God  to  keep  it  from  explod- 
ing. The  laws  of  health  are  just  as  fixed  and  certain,  and 
just  as  divine,  as  those  of  powder  or  gravitation.  Moody 
teaches  that  a  minister  has  no  right  to  look  after  his 
worldly  affairs  ;  and  says  that  when  he  wants  a  barrel  of 


PR  A  YER.  165 


flour,  he  asks  God  for  it,  and  it  comes.  This  is  all  very 
well  so  long  as  Mr.  Farwell  of  Chicago  believes  Mr. 
Moody  is  doing  a  good  work,  and  stands  ready  to  back 
him  up  with  both  money  and  flour ;  but  it  is  nonsense  to 
suppose  that  prayer  would  bring  the  flour  if  no  one  had 
any  confidence  in  the  utility  of  his  work.  All  over  the 
world,  and  in  all  time,  men  and  women  and  children  have 
hungered  and  cried  for  bread,  and  starved  with  a  prayer 
as  their  very  last  breath.  Is  Moody  a  special  pet,  that 
only  his  prayers  are  answered  ?  A  man  wants  a  factory 
on  the  bank  of  some  running  stream.  Can  he  build  it 
with  prayer,  or  out  of  logical  syllogisms,  or  emotions  of 
the  heart  ?  He  can  build  it  only  in  the  use  of  natural 
forces,  and  in  accordance  with  natural  laws.  In  the 
building  of  the  dam,  the  raising  the  walls,  the  construc- 
tion of  the  machinery,  the  adaptation  of  wheels  to  the 
water-power,  every  step  must  be  a  knowledge  of  natural 
laws,  and  a  rigid  obedience  to  them ;  and  just  in  accord- 
ance with  the  knowledge  and  the  obedience  will  be  his 
success.  He  combines  and  adapts  laws  and  forces,  and 
so  produces  results  that  otherwise  would  never  have  come 
to  pass.  Man  is  no  idle  spectator  of  God's  working  in 
nature ;  or,  if  he  were,  there  would  be  no  civilization. 
So  man  does  "  interfere  "  with  and  materially  modify  the 
natural  order;  but  so  far  as  he  succeeds  he  interferes  with 
law  lawfully.  He  combines,  adjusts,  and  adapts,  and  so 
accomplishes  his  results.  All  the  forces  that  are  repre- 
sented in  a  train  of  cars,  or  the  Atlantic  cable,  are  natural, 
divine  forces  ;  but  nature  alone  would  never  have  made 


i66vJ  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

either.  And  yet  man  does  not  contravene  the  laws  in 
making  them :  he  combines  simple  forces  for  the  produc- 
tion of  a  complex  result. 

But  all  these  things  come  through  obedience  to  God  in 
the  special  department  where  the  result  is  reached.  Mr. 
Frothingham  has  been  cried  out  against  for  saying  that 
the  popular  notion  of  prayer  is  immoral ;  but  a  little 
thought  will  teach  you  that  he  is  right.  To  disregard 
God's  methods  in  one  department  of  life,  and  expect  to 
escape  the  consequences  by  resort  to  the  methods  of 
another  department,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  to 
expect  that  God  is  going  to  take  one  hand  to  deliver  you 
out  of  the  other.  Men  say  practically,  "  O  God,  I  will  not 
obey  your  conditions  of  health ;  but  I  expect  that  when 
I  pray  you  will  make  me  well.  I  will  not  pay  any  heed 
to  your  law  of  gravitation;  but  you  must  keep  me  from 
falling  and  being  injured.  I  will  not  regard  your  laws  of 
steam  ;  but  I  hope  you  will  make  my  engine  work  just  as 
well  as  if  I  did.  I  will  not  study  to  know  the  laws  of  gas ; 
but  I  trust,  for  the  sake  of  my  prayers,  you  will  make  my 
house  as  light  as  my  neighbor's.  I  will  not  pay  any  atten- 
tion to  your  laws  in  the  strength  of  materials ;  but  I  pray 
that  my  store  may  stand  as  strong  and  as  safe  as  any 
on  the  street.  I  will  not  keep  your  laws  of  morality  and\ 
character ;  but  I  will  become  as  good  as  anybody  else  by 
praying  that  you  will  suspend  the  general  rules  in  my 
particular  case."  That  is  just  what  the  common  idea  of 
prayer  means.  It  puts  a  premium  on  laziness  and  ignor- 
ance and  incapacity  and  wilfulness.     If  it  is  true,  there  is 


PR  A  YER.  167 


no  need  of  knowledge,  of  labor,  of  training,  of  skill,  of 
foresight,  of  care.  In  the  truest  and  deepest  sense  of 
the  word,  it  is  immoral.  Carried  out  logically  it  would/ 
make  civilization  impossible.  What  is  the  use  of  mer- 
chandise if  God  brings  flour  to  the  door  of  every  man 
who  asks  for  it  ?  Mr.  Moody  ought  to  go  a  step  further, 
and  save  his  wife  the  housekeeping  trouble  by  having  the 
flour  ready  made  into  bread.  On  his  theory,  a  breath 
could  do  it.  What  is  the  use  of  skilled  physicians  when 
prayer  alone  can  heal  the  sick  ?  What  is  the  use  of 
trained  captains  and  drilled  sailors,  much  more  of  insur- 
ance companies,  if  prayer  will  always  insure  a  safe  voyage 
at  sea  ? 

These  natural  conditions  and  laws  are  the  present, 
active,  working  God.  He  who  knows  and  obeys  the  con- 
ditions becomes  master  of  the  divine  omnipotence.  The 
whole  force  of  divinity  helps  him. 

Must  we  not,  then,  pray  ?  If  there  be  spiritual  life  in 
you,  you  cannot  help  praying,  any  more  than  a  rose  can 
help  exhaling  its  fragrance.  The  child  does  not  sit  dumb 
in  the  presence  of  father  and  mother,  because  it  knows 
the  love  and  care  of  his  parents  do  not  depend  on  regular 
asking  for  them.  The  child-heart  seeks  rest  and  love  in 
the  parent-heart,  and  naturally  pours  out  its  thoughts, 
hopes,  fears,  and  wishes,  into  the  sympathetic  ears ;  but, 
if  the  child  be  a  wise  one,  he  does  not  expect  to  make  his 
wishes  prevail  against  higher  and  better  wishes. 

And  yet  the  prayer  may  be  a  very  vital  thing  in  the 
matter  of  our  character  and  relation  to  God.     What  does 


i6S*  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


compliance  with  divine  conditions  do  in  nature  ?  Simply 
this  :  It  does  not  change  any  single  law  or  force  ;  it  only 
sets  us  in  new  relations  to  them.  Gravitation  will  hold 
me  firmly  on  my  feet,  or  it  will  fling  me  down  an  abyss, 
according  to  the  relation  in  which  I  stand  to  it.  When  I 
obey  them,  laws  help  me :  when  I  disobey,  they  hurt  me. 
Thus  prayer  may  set  me  in  new  and  higher  relations  to 
God,  so  as  utterly  to  change,  and  grandly  to  elevate,  my 
character.  When  by  spiritual,  aspiring  prayer,  I  reach  out 
after  God,  I  comply  with  the  conditions  of  spiritual  health 
and  strength.  If  I  open  my  shutters  toward  the  east,  the 
morning  sun  will  shine  in.  It  will  shine  any  way,  but  will 
do  me  no  good  unless  I  obey  the  conditions  of  its  shining, 
on  me.  So,  if  I  open  the  windows  of  my  soul  toward* 
God,  the  light  of  his  divine  truth  and  life  will  shine  in. 
In  this  spiritual  realm  it  is  knowledge  and  obedience  to 
divine  laws  and  conditions,  precisely  the  same  as  in  the 
material.  It  is  one  God  and  one  order  in  both.  Study 
and  work,  then,  are  material  prayer;  and  prayer  is  spirit- 
ual study  and  work.  "  I  will,  therefore,  that  all  men  pray 
everywhere." 

"  For,  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  and  goats, 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  having  hands,  they  lift  them  not  in  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  that  call  them  friend  ? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

So   far,   then,  as   both   natural   and  spiritual  are  con\ 
cerned,  when  we  make  the  request,  —  "  Lord  teach  us  to 


PRAYER.  169 


pray,"  the  answer  comes,  that  the  way  for  us  to  find 
God,  and  get  his  forces  as  helpers  on  our  side,  is  by 
knowing  and  obeying  the  divine  will  —  the  laws  and 
conditions  —  in  whatever  department  we  wish  the  results 
produced.  Thus  the  highest  prayer  is,  "  Not  as  I  will, 
but  as  thou  wilt."  God's  will  is  the  only  power;  and/ 
it  works  out  our  purposes  when  we  have  obeyed  the 
conditions,  so  that  the  divine  forces  flow  in  the  channels 
that  we  have  intelligently  dug  out  for  them. 

"  And  yet  the  spirit  in  my  heart 
Says,  Wherefore  should  I  pray 
That  thou  wouldst  seek  me  with  thy  love, 
Since  thou  dost  seek  alway  ; 

"  And  dost  not  even  wait  until 
I  urge  my  step  to  thee  ; 
But  in  the  darkness  of  my  life 
Art  coming  still  to  me  ? 

"  I  pray  not,  then,  because  I  would  : 
I  pray  because  I  must ; 
There  is  no  meaning  in  my  prayer 
But  thankfulness  and  trust. 
"  I  would  not  have  thee  otherwise 
Than  what  thou  ever  art : 
Be  still  thyself,  and  then  I  know 
We  cannot  live  apart." 


Correction.— In  this  chapter,  page  134.  fi«t  edition,  an  unintentional  injustice 
is  done  to  Dr.  Cullis.  A  friend  tells  me  that  he  does  not  have  children  travelling  over 
the  State  on  behalf  of  his  work.  I  have  confounded  his  method  with  that  of  another 
institution.  I  gladly  call  attention  to  and  correct  the  mistake.  Of  course  the  reader 
will  see  that  this  does  not  at  all  change  the  line  of  thought  or  detract  from  the  force  of 
the  argument.  ra.  J- 


IX. 

BIBLES,    AND    THE    BIBLE. 

The  clothing,  the  buildings,  the  institutions,  the  arts,  the 
commerce,  the  rites,  the  ceremonies,  the  books,  the  gen- 
eral habits  and  customs  of  a  people  are  the  natural  out- 
come and  expression  of  that  people's  life.  So  all  these 
things  change  as  the  people  change.  They  rise,  they 
progress,  they  decay,  as  the  people  rise,  progress,  or 
decay.  None  of  these  things,  then,  can  be  permanent 
in  any  special  form,  unless  humanity  could  stagnate,  and 
come  to  a  permanent  standstill.  And  since  we  believe 
that  man  began  at  the  animal  level,  and  is  rising  as  the 
ages  advance,  we  must  also  believe  that  none  of  the  outer 
manifestations  of  the  life  of  man  has  yet  reached  its 
completest  manifestation.  The  art,  the  architecture,  the 
literature,  the  statesmanship,  of  barbarous  man,  are  all 
barbaric.  As  he  develops,  they  develop  and  take  on 
new  forms.  And  unless  we  believe  that  humanity  has 
gotten  its  growth,  and  will  never  be  any  wiser  and 
stronger  and  better,  we  must  expect  that  all  our  outer 
170 


BIBLES,   AND    THE  BIBLE.  171 


life  —  that  we  comprehend  under  the  word  "  civilization  " 
—  will  in  the  future 

"  Suffer  a  sea-change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange,"  — 

becoming  richer  and  finer  than  we  now  know;  and, 
though  strange  to  our  present  thought,  yet  familiar  to 
that  which  shall  be.  But  all  this  change  will  be  in  the 
order  of  growth;  new  and  strange  only  as  manhood  is 
new  and  strange  to  a  child. 

This  law  of  change  and  growth,  which  is  true  in  all 
other  things,  holds  also  with  equal  force  in  matters  of 
religion.  The  religious  rites,  institutions,  and  books  of  a 
people,  are  and  must  be  the  natural  expression  of  that 
people's  religious  thought  and  grade  of  civilization.  In 
rude  and  savage  nations,  where  the  art  is  grotesque,  and 
the  whole  life  is  on  the  barbaric  level,  the  religious 
thought  and  form  correspond.  The  images  and  pictures 
of  the  gods  are  rude,  the  cultus  is  coarse,  sometimes 
obscene,  always  rude  and  gross;  and  the  hopes  and 
fears  find  expression  in  such  rough  and  material  shapes 
as  are  fitted  to  impress  rough  and  material  people.  As 
civilization  develops,  these  things  grow,  —  a  few  thought- 
ful men  always  ahead  of  the  crowd,  —  until  the  cultus 
becomes  stately  and  grand,  the  idols  masterpieces  of  art, 
and  the  Scriptures  the  highest  religious  aspirations  and 
inspirations  of  the  time. 

These  things,  which  we  know  to  be  historic  truth,  are 
precisely  what  evolution  demands ;  for  it  teaches  that  the 


172  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

whole  outer  life  of  man  must  be  but  the  natural  unfold- 
ing of  that  which  is  within  him.  The  religious  writings 
of  the  nations,  that  they  have  come  to  look  upon  as 
bibles,  —  divine  revelations,  —  are  no  exception  to  this 
rule.  They  have  been,  at  the  time,  the  natural  out- 
growth of  the  people's  religious  life.  That  they  have 
been  produced  only  rarely,  and  at  special  epochs  of 
upheaval  or  change,  no  more  militates  against  their 
natural  development  than  the  fact  that  the  century-plant 
blooms  only  once  in  a  hundred  years  takes  it  out  of  the 
category  of  flowers.  To  say  that,  if  bibles  are  natural 
developments  of  humanity,  they  ought  to  be  more  com- 
mon and  in  perpetual  process  of  manufacture,  is  no  more 
conclusive  than  as  if  you  should  say,  since  Shakspere 
is  not  miraculous,  we  ought  to  expect  to  find  a  Shak- 
spere in  every  country  village. 

The  rudest  religions  have  no  bibles,  just  as  the  rudest 
peoples  have  no  literature.  Every  race  that  has  become 
so  cultivated  as  to  have  a  literature  has  also  had  its 
sacred  literature,  or  bible,  —  the  one  the  natural  expres- 
sion of  its  religious  life,  as  the  other  is  the  natural 
expression  of  its  intellectual.  So  the  Chinese  have  the 
writings  of  Confucius ;  the  Hindoos  have  the  Vedas  and 
Brahmanic  scriptures ;  the  Buddhists,  the  works  of  their 
master ;  the  Persians,  the  Zendavesta ;  the  classic  na- 
tions, their  hymns  and  oracles ;  the  Norsemen,  their 
Eddas ;  the  Hebrews,  their  laws,  prophets,  and  psalms  ; 
the  Christians,  their  Gospels  and  Epistles ;  the  followers 
of  Joe   Smith,  the  Book  of  Mormon ;    the  New  Church, 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  173 


the  writings  of  Swedenborg;  and  the  Spiritualists,  the 
books  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  and  a  host  of  others. 
One  thing,  if  you  will  notice  it,  is  common  to  all.  Noble 
or  ignoble,  wise  or  unwise,  inspired  or  uninspired,  all 
these  various  scriptures  have  on  them  the  birthmark  of 
their  nationality  and  their  time.  They  are  all  the  natu- 
ral and  necessary  outgrowth  of  the  religious  thought 
and  life,  hopes  and  fears  and  aspirations,  of  their  age. 
They  partake  of  the  ignorance  and  limitations  and  preju- 
dices of  their  time.  Not  one  of  them  betrays  any  verita- 
ble knowledge  higher  than  the  high-water  mark  of  their 
epoch.  This  means  simply  that  they  were  growths  of 
the  earth,  and  not  exotics  transplanted  from  heaven. 

One  other  thing  I  wish  you  to  notice,  that  is  true  of 
them  all :  not  one  of  them  came  to  men  with  such  cre- 
dentials of  revelation  as  to  make  them  take  their  place, 
from  the  outset,  as  the  "  word  of  God."  The  sacredness 
with  which  they  are  regarded  is  a  matter  of  growth. 
The  reverence  that  surrounds  them  is  chiefly  the  halo 
of  antiquity.  Paul  was  personally  despised,  and  his  let- 
ters cast  out  and  abused,  by  the  majority  of  his  fellow- 
Christians.  Only  after  ages  have  passed  away  have 
books  taken  on  sacredness.  As  the  earthly  authorship 
grows  dim  and  distant,  the  heavenly  claim  is  brought 
forward  and  emphasized.  It  seems  to  be  true,  that  the 
less  people  know  about  a  religious  claim,  the  more  they 
will  believe  in  it. 

And  another  habit  of  humanity  needs  emphasizing. 
When  they  once  come  to  believe  in  the  sacredness  of  a 


174  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

thing,  they  will  not  give  it  up  even  for  something  that  is 
manifestly  better  —  as  though  any  stronger  proof  could 
be  given  for  the  divine  authorship  of  a  thing  than  its 
truth,  beauty,  and  utility.  Take  one  striking  illustration 
of  this :  In  the  earliest  times,  the  use  of  metals  was  un- 
known. The  priest  then  used  a  stone  knife  in  sacrifice, 
for  the  very  good  reason  that  a  stone  knife  was  all  and 
the  best  he  had.  Through  use,  the  stone  knife  became 
sacred.  So,  when  metal  knives  were  at  last  invented,  the 
people  dare  not  use  them ;  and  they  kept  to  the  worse,  be- 
cause it  was  old  and  sacred.  How  much  wiser  or  more 
sensibly  religious  are  we  ?  Because  the  Bible  sanctioned 
slavery,  thousands  defended  and  fought  for  it.  Though 
manifestly  inhuman,  they  thought,  because  it  was  in  the 
Bible,  it  must  be  divine.  And  to-day  the  question  of 
Sunday  and  our  centennial  cannot  be  argued  on  the 
ground  of  human  fitness  and  utility,  because  of  religious 
prejudice.  So  all  causes  must  be  brought,  not  to  the  test 
of  reason,  of  sense,  of  experience,  of  utility,  but  must 
come  to  the  Book.  And  yet  the  writers  of  the  Book 
wrote  in  other  times  and  with  other  peoples,  and  with  less 
of  knowledge  and  experience  of  humanity  than  thousands 
possess  to-day.  What  Buddha  and  Zoroaster  and  Confu- 
cius and  Moses  and  Paul  thought  and  said,  are  of  bind- 
ing force  to-day  —  if  they  are  true;  but  their  mistakes 
and  limitations  should  not  bind  us  simply  because  they 
are  in  bibles,  and  are  called  canonical. 

All   this   will   be   admitted   by  everybody,   and   in   all 
nations,  concerning  every  other  bible  but  their  own.     The 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  175 


practical  question,  then,  for  us  to  settle,  is,  as  to  whether 
our  bible  is  an  exception.  All  religionists  regard  their 
own  bible  as  a  divine  revelation;  and  they  reject  all 
others.  They  know  theirs  is  true ;  and  they  know  all 
others  are  not.     What,  then,  is  ours  ? 

The  common  claim  of  the  Church  that  the  Bible  is,  and 
ought  to  be,  the  court  of  final  appeal,  and  the  end  of 
human  reason,  rests  on  the  other  claim  that  the  Bible  is 
inspired,  and  so  infallible.  The  foundation  of  this  latter 
claim,  then,  is  the  thing  for  us  to  examine. 

As  specimens  of  the  ordinary  argument,  and  of  the  use 
of  texts  as  proof,  we  will  just  glance  at  the  two  pillar 
passages  that  are  supposed  to  support  the  common  belief. 
In  2  Pet.  i.  21,  it  reads:  "For  the  prophecy  came  not  in 
old  time  by  the  will  of  man;  but  holy  men  of  God 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Three 
considerations  take  all  value  from  this  passage  as  proof. 
First,  the  words  "prophecy"  and  "holy  men  "  are  indefi- 
nite: they  do  not  cover  special  men  or  books  with  any 
such  certainty  as  makes  us  know  just  what  is  meant. 
Second,  it  is  more  than  questionable  as  to  whether  or  not 
Peter  is  the  author  of  the  second  letter  that  bears  his 
name.  Third,  even  if  it  were  settled  that  Peter  wrote  it, 
still  it  remains  to  be  proved  that  it  is  any  thing  more 
than  fallible  Peter's  fallible  opinion.  The  other  passage 
is  in  2  Tim.  iii.  16 :  "  All  scripture  is  given  by  inspira- 
tion of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness."  This 
passage,  being  written  long  before  the  New  Testament  was 


176  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

brought  together,  of  course  has  no  reference  to  any  thing 
but  the  older  writings.  But,  more  than  this,  the  present 
translation  is  incorrect.  Bishop  Ellicott,  a  leading  Church 
authority  in  England,  makes  it  read,  "  Every  scripture, 
inspired  by  God,  is  profitable,"  &c.  You  will  notice  that 
this  leaves  wholly  unsettled  the  central  question,  as  to 
what  scripture  is  inspired  by  God.  Our  judgment,  then, 
must  be  made  up  from  other  sources  than  any  special 
texts. 

There  is  one  vital  distinction  that  is  frequently  lost 
sight  of  in  discussions  of  this  subject.  I  refer  to  the 
distinction  between  inspiration  and  infallibility.  Proving 
that  a  book  is  infallibly  true  does  not  prove  that  it  is  in- 
spired, in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  term,  as  used  among 
the  churches ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  proving  that  a 
book  is  inspired,  does  not  necessarily  establish  its  free- 
dom from  error :  but  as  the  two  things  are  so  often  con- 
founded, or  claimed  together,  any  clear  view  of  the  theme 
must  notice  them  both.  How  stands  the  case,  then,  in 
regard  to  biblical  infallibility  ? 

To  begin  with,  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  earnest  atten- 
tion, that  the  Bible  nowhere  makes  any  claim  to  be  infalli- 
ble. We  have  already  seen  how  little  the  strongest  pass- 
ages of  the  kind  to  be  found  are  able  to  bear  any  such 
strain  of  interpretation :  and,  as  a  fair  specimen  of 
the  style  and  real  pretensions  of  the  writers,  notice  the 
opening  words  of  Luke's  Gospel.  Here  he  says,  that, 
as  others  were  writing  down  their  accounts  of  the  life  and 
sayings  of  the  Lord,  "  It  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  177 


traced  down  every  thing  from  the  first,  to  write  unto  thee 
in  order,  most  excellent  Theophilus  ; "  and  one  "  ortho- 
dox "  commentator  remarks  upon  this,  that  "  inspiration 
did  not  render  it  unnecessary  to  use  every  available 
source  of  information."  Luke  merely  says  that,  having 
had  means  of  information,  it  seemed  good  to  him  to  write 
his  Gospel. 

And, — what  is  not  true,  —  even  though  some  one  writer 
should  claim  to  be  infallible,  and  should  make  good  that 
claim,  his  infallibility  would  be  no  guaranty  of  the  infal- 
libility of  any  one  else;  for  there  is  no  reason  better 
than  the  bookbinder's,  or  simple  convenience,  why  all  the 
books  of  the  Bible  should  be  together  in  the  same  covers. 
What  one  says,  therefore,  does  not  necessarily  hold  true 
of,  or  represent,  any  of  the  others. 

What  are  the  real  facts  about  the  Bible  as  a  book  ? 
The  different  books  were  composed  by  different  authors, 
of  different  nationalities,  and  at  periods  so  widely  apart 
that  the  time  of  their  writing  stretches  across  a  space  of 
fifteen  hundred  years.  Of  some  of  them,  nobody  knows 
when,  where,  or  by  whom,  they  were  composed,  or  how 
they  have  come  to  be  in  their  present  places  or  shapes. 
Of  others,  the  authorship,  though  not  quite  so  obscure,  is 
still  in  dispute ;  and  this  not  of  certain  unimportant  ones, 
but  of  the  very  central  books  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  authorship  of  the  Gospel  of  John  is  not  yet  deter- 
mined ;  neither  is  it  known  that  we  have  either  of  the 
Gospels  in  its  original  form. 

And  then,  even  though  we  knew  who  wrote  them  all, 


178  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  where  and  when,  we  have  no  sort  of  guaranty  that 
they  have  been  handed  down  with  such  textual  accuracy 
as  to  justify  any  bishop  or  church  in  pronouncing  judg- 
ment on  the  basis  of  its  present  verbal  utterances.  We 
have  only  modern  copies  of  books  from  two  to  three 
thousand  years  old.  They  floated  about  in  the  hands  of 
persons  or  organizations  for  generations  before  they  were 
collected  as  we  have  them  now.  In  copying  they  were 
purposely  or  blunderingly  altered  —  sometimes,  we  know, 
to  the  extent  of  whole  paragraphs :  how  much  more,  we 
do  not  know.  In  no  case  have  we  an  original  manuscript. 
The  most  ancient  one  we  possess  was  written  at  a  time 
farther  from  Christ  than  we  now  are  from  Shakspere. 
And  when  you  think  of  the  disputes  of  commentators 
over  the  text  of  the  dramatist,  —  and  this  in  an  age  of 
printing,  —  and  remember  that  even  his  personality  has 
been  called  in  question,  you  can  judge  something  of  what 
probability  there  is  that  we  can  be  so  sure  of  the  mere 
words  of  the  Bible  as  to  warrant  us  in  using  them  as 
instruments  of  hatred  and  warfare,  and  even  of  present 
and  future  damnation  of  our  brethren. 

And  even  if  we  knew  all  about  the  separate  books,  and 
were  sure  we  had  accurate  copies,  we  do  not  know  with 
certainty  as  to  what  is  bible,  and  what  is  not.  I  mean 
by  this  that  the  sacred  canon  has  never  yet  been  defi- 
nitely settled,  even  by  the  Church  itself.  The  Council 
of  Trent,  and  all  the  Roman  Church  until  now,  not  only 
declare  the  whole  Apocrypha  canonical,  but  anathematize 
all  who  dissent.     The  whole  Protestant  world  rejects  it. 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  179 


And  the  best  scholarship  of  the  Church  is  still  unsettled 
about  Hebrews,  James,  Jude,  the  second  epistle  of  Peter, 
the  second  and  third  of  John,  and  the  Revelation. 

If  there  be  infallible  books,  of  which  to  make  an  infal- 
lible bible,  and  if  these  be  infallibly  preserved  and  trans- 
mitted to  us,  we  are  still  undecided  and  in  trouble,  unless 
we  have  also  an  infallible  catalogue  to  tell  us  which  they 
are.  If  there  are  two  or  three  guide-posts,  and  one  is 
infallibly  correct,  and  the  others  not,  it  matters  little  to 
us,  unless  some  one  is  able  to  tell  us  which  is  right. 
And  then,  if  words  be  so  important,  how  comes  it  that 
the  New  Testament  writers  quote  the  Old  loosely  and 
incorrectly?  In  one  place,  the  Septuagint  is  followed 
where  its  translation  from  the  original  Hebrew  is  blun- 
deringly wrong,  and  even  reverses  the  sense;  and  not 
only  are  these  things  so,  but  there  are  in  the  Bible  palpa- 
ble errors  and  inconsistencies  and  contradictions  that  no 
one  would  think  of  trying  to  cover  up,  were  it  not  for  the 
pressing  necessities  of  special  pleading.  Not  only  is  it 
confessedly  impossible  to  reconcile  Genesis — I  do  not 
say  Moses,  because  it  is  extremely  doubtful  as  to  whether 
Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch  —  with  the  words  of  God's 
great  world-book  that  we  know  he  wrote,  whether  he 
wrote  any  thing  else  or  not ;  but  even  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  do  not  always  agree,  and,  in  some  cases, 
were  most  certainly  mistaken.  I  have  not  time  to  dwell 
separately  on  the  contradictions  of  the  evangelists  con- 
cerning the  birth  of  Jesus,  the  length  of  his  ministry, 
the  date  of  the  supper  and  the  crucifixion,  and  the  inci- 


180  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

dents  connected  with  his  resurrection.  In  regard  to 
these,  I  content  myself  with  the  general  statement  that 
they  never  have  been  successfully  reconciled.  Let  me, 
however,  emphasize  the  point  by  two  or  three  examples. 

In  the  first  place,  I  refer  you  to  the  genealogy  of  Jesus 
as  contained  in  Matthew  and  Luke,  as  compared  with 
each  other,  and  with  the  Old  Testament  records.  The 
table  of  Matthew  is  not  correct :  it  is  not  the  genealogy 
of  Jesus,  in  any  sense,  unless  he  is  the  natural  son  of 
Joseph ;  and  it  is  wholly  irreconcilable  with  the  table  of 
Luke  or  with  that  of  the  Chronicles.  It  has  a  suspi- 
cious look  to  find  that  the  genealogical  table  is  divided 
into  three  perfectly  equal  parts ;  and  it  is  found  wholly 
indefensible  when  we  notice  that  this  even  division  is 
obtained  by  changes  and  omissions.  The  matter  is 
confirmed  by  the  discovery  that,  while  Matthew  gives  but 
twenty-six  generations  between  David  and  Joseph,  Luke 
gives  forty-one;  and  then,  both  Matthew's  and  Luke's 
tables  give  the  genealogy  of  Joseph,  which  is  nothing 
at  all  to  the  point,  unless  Jesus  be  the  son  of  Joseph. 

In  the  next  place,  the  evangelists  quote  the  Old  Testa- 
ment inaccurately  not  only,  but  they  quote  as  prophecies 
of  Christ  words  that  have  no  reference  to  him  whatever. 
In  one  place,  a  passage  from  Zachariah  is  attributed  to 
Jeremiah ;  and,  in  another,  a  passage  is  professedly  quoted 
which  has  no  existence  in  the  Old  Testament,  nor  any- 
where else. 

Once  more,  notice  the  long  address  attributed  to  Jesus 
concerning  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  "  end  of 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  181 


the  world."  False  Messiahs  and  great  wars  were  to  pre- 
cede the  downfall  of  the  city.  We  know  from  history 
that  neither  of  these  things  occurred.  Christ  was  to 
come  again  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  immediately  after  its 
overthrow,  and  before  that  generation  passed  away.  He 
did  not  so  come. 

Paul  was  mistaken  on  this  same  point.  He  teaches  dis- 
tinctly, in  i  Thess.  iv.,  that  Christ  was  to  come  and  raise 
the  dead,  and  set  up  his  Messianic  kingdom,  before  "  we 
who  are  alive  "  have  passed  away. 

And  then,  this  doctrine  that  the  Bible  was  infallible,  and 
not  to  be  touched,  criticised,  and  judged  of,  by  individual 
students,  was  not  prominently  held  out  till  the  sixteenth 
century.  Luther  needed  an  infallible  book  to  set  up  in 
opposition  to  infallible  Rome,  and  so  claimed  he  had  one ; 
and,  while  he  affirmed  the  "right  of  private  judgment  "  as 
against  the  pope,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  deny  it,  even  to 
the  point  of  persecution  by  the  civil  power,  as  against 
Luther. 

Again :  Peter  and  Paul  were  at  swords'  points  on  the 
question  of  receiving  the  Gentiles  into  the  Christian 
Church.  Are  we  to  assume  that  they  immediately  became 
infallible  on  taking  a  pen  in  their  hands,  while  they  were 
mistaken  about  the  gravest  matters  when  talking  and  act- 
ing, and  while  they  were  even  capable,  when  hard  pushed, 
of  dissimulation  or  falsehood?  And,  once  more,  Jude 
was  not  so  infallible  but  that  he  could  quote  from  the 
apocryphal  book  of  Enoch,  written  but  a  little  while  be- 
fore his  own  time,  and  all  the  while  suppose  himself  re- 


i82  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

peating  the  words  of  "  the  seventh  from  Adam,"  who  was 
translated. 

"But  if  the  Bible  is  not  infallible,"  say  some,  "how  are 
we  to  get  along  for  a  guide  ?  We  must  have  an  infallible 
guide." 

I  am  perfectly  aware  that  this  kind  of  reasoning  is 
much  more  common  than  it  is  logical  or  honest.  Such 
arguments  —  and  books  and  pulpits  are  full  of  it  —  are 
mere  appeals  to  passion  and  prejudice,  that  would  not  be 
needed  were  not  facts  sadly  wanting.  Never  forget  one 
thing :  the  consequences  of  a  fact  can  never  invalidate  it  ; 
and  that  you  want  a  thing  is  not  quite  sufficient  ground 
for  believing  it  true.  Suppose  you  thought  yourself  worth 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  but  wake  up  to  find  you  have  not  a 
cent.  "  It  can't  be !  I  must  have  money !  I  hate  the 
man  who  brought  the  news  !  "  These  and  like  expressions 
would  hardly  add  much  to  your  bank  account.  It  is  well, 
it  is  honest,  and  it  will  pay  in  the  end,  though  temporarily 
painful,  to  find  out  and  face  the  exact  truth. 

But  what  am  I  saying  about  its  being  painful  to  face 
such  facts  as  these  ?  In  a  certain  sense,  it  is  painful  to 
give  up  any  old  and  cherished  belief.  It  is  not  pleasant  to 
find  that  the  rock  you  had  anchored  to  is  only  an  ice-cake, 
and  melting  at  that.  It  is  such  a  comfort  to  feel  that  you 
have  an  unchangeable  standard  to  refer  to. 

I  have  two  remarks  to  make  about  this ;  and,  first,  all 
this  talk  of  a  fixed  standard  in  the  Bible,  outside  of  the 
last  decree  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  is  pure  illusion. 
There   is   hardly  a  do:trinal   passage   in  the  Bible  that 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  183 

"orthodox"  Christendom  is  agreed  about.  It  is  hardly 
satisfactory  to  a  person  seeking  exact  truth,  to  have  half  a 
dozen  doctors  of  divinity  each  giving  the  only  correct 
interpretation  of  a  text,  and  all  anathematizing  the  other 
five.  Looked  at  through  the  medium  of  denominational 
commentators,  the  various  doctrines  assume  as  many 
shapes  as  the  cloud  in  Hamlet :  — 

Hamlet.  Do  you  see  yonder  cloud  that's  almost  in  shape  of  a 
camel  ? 

Polonius.  By  the  mass,  and  'tis  like  a  camel,  indeed. 
Ham.  Methinks  it  is  like  a  weasel. 
Pol.  It  is  backed  like  a  weasel. 
Ham.  Or  like  a  whale. 
Pol.  Very  like  a  whale. 

All  this  talk  of  an  infallible  standard  is  meaningless 
and  delusive,  unless  you  have,  as  Romanists  claim,  an 
infallible  interpreter. 

And  the  second  remark  is  this :  So  far  from  its  being 
painful  to  give  up  the  doctrine  of  biblical  infallibility,  I 
hesitate  not  to  say  that,  just  in  so  far  as  one  has  the  spirit 
and  love  of  Christ,  and  at  the  same  time  comprehends 
intelligently  the  points  at  issue,  he  will  rejoice  to  be  able 
to  give  it  up ;  and  what  little  comfort  there  may  be  in 
thinking  he  has  an  infallible  guide,  he  will  gladly  sacrifice 
to  the  larger  and  better  results.  So  far  from  there  being 
any  justification  for  "  orthodox  "  writers  and  preachers, 
when  they  say  that  those  who  question  the  infallibility  of 
the  Bible  are  undermining  the  hope  of  man,  it  is  true,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  bald  and  blank  materialism  gives  a 


1 84  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

nobler,  juster,  and  more  blessed  picture  of  human  life  and 
destiny,  than  does  "orthodoxy."  He  who  has  in  his  heart 
something  of  the  love  and  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of 
Christ  would  rather  take  the  boon  of  his  brief  life  be- 
neath the  stars,  and  then  at  its  close  go  down  into  dark- 
ness and  silence  and  nonentity,  than  to  grasp  eagerly 
after  the  gift  of  immortality,  if,  along  with  that,  he  must 
also  take  the  appalling  fact  of  the  unending  sorrow  and 
wail  of  one  single  human  soul.  I  do  not  say  that  our 
feelings  or  preferences  touch  the  fact  of  the  matter  in  any 
way  whatever :  I  am  talking  of  the  question  as  to  which 
side  has  the  right  to  charge  the  other  with  teaching  horri- 
ble and  hopeless  doctrine.  I  would  rather  die  like  a  dog, 
and  see  no  to-morrow,  than  selfishly  take  a  heaven  while 
one  single  soul  is  in  endless  torment,  even  on  the  outer- 
most verge  of  creation ;  and  I  do  not  envy  that  man  his 
Christian  charity,  who  would  not  surrender  his  immortality 
for  the  sake  of  the  abolition  of  hell. 

Am  I  not  right,  then,  when  I  say  that  the  "  orthodox  " 
hope  of  heaven,  alongside  an  everlasting  hell,  is  more 
horrible  than  the  materialist's  hope,  that,  though  it  do  not 
contain  any  heaven,  is  also  destitute  of  a  hell  ? 

A  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible  is  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  of  our  Christianity  and  civilization.  It  per- 
verts and  makes  childish,  partial,  despotic,  and  horrible, 
the  character  of  God.  It  misrepresents  and  maligns  the 
nature  and  destiny  of  man.  It  warps  moral  perceptions, 
clogs  progress,  and  hinders  civilization.  It  makes  the 
churches,  instead  of  reformers  and  evil-slayers,  sectarian 


BIBLES,  AND  THE  BIBLE.  185 

and  jealous  clans  in  perpetual  feuds.  It  turns  them  into 
system-makers  and  riddle-guessers  and  Chinese -puzzle- 
arrangers.  In  short,  not  one  single  valuable  thing  will  be 
lost  when  the  fiction  of  infallibility  is  surrendered;  and 
many  and  grievous  evils  will  be  thrown  off. 

So  much  for  infallibility.  I  have  given  time  to  it 
because  of  its  importance,  and  because  of  the  ignorance 
and  prejudice  current  concerning  it.  I  will  despatch  the 
second  part  of  my  subject  as  briefly  as  I  can,  though  I 
do  not  wish  to  slight  it  on  account  of  haste.  Turn  now, 
then,  to  inspiration. 

This,  as  I  have  already  said,  is  quite  a  different  thing 
from  infallibility.  The  Bible  writers  do  claim  for  them- 
selves inspiration,  —  that  they  speak  and  act  under  a  di- 
vine guidance  and  influence. 

Before  proceeding  to  investigate  and  define  this  claim, 
let  us  glance  at  the  different  theories  of  inspiration  that 
have  obtained.  By  so  doing,  we  shall  find  that  we  have 
already  incidentally  replied  to  some  of  them ;  and  so  we 
shall  clear  our  way,  and  see  what  path  we  are  to  follow. 

And,  first,  the  prevalent  theory,  from  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  until  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  was  the  one 
called  the  verbal.  This  taught  that  every  word  of  the 
Bible  was  the  direct  communication  of  God  to  the  mind 
of  man,  and  this  as  much  as  though  God  held  the  hand 
and  directed  the  pen  of  the  writer.  Old  Dr.  Owen,  a 
prominent  English  Puritan  divine  and  commentator,  held 
that  even  the  points  and  accents  of  the  original  Hebrew 
—  which  we    now  know  were    invented  for  convenience' 


1S6  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


sake,  long  after  the  time  of  Christ  —  were  divinely  in- 
spired. And  as  these  masoretic  points,  as  they  were 
called,  stood  for  vowels  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  as  a 
different  point  or  vowel  might  make  a  different  word,  he 
rightly  held  that,  unless  they  were  inspired,  he  had  no 
certainty  as  to  the  meaning.  Owen's  successors  have  been 
compelled  to  surrender  his  premises;  though  they  still 
illogically  cling  to  his  conclusions,  so  far  as  infallibility  is 
concerned.  But  as  verbal  inspiration  is  not  now  claimed 
by  any,  so  far  as  I  know,  it  is  not  needful  to  give  it  any 
further  attention. 

The  theory  that  followed  that,  and  is  the  "  orthodox  " 
one  of  the  present  day,  is  that  which  is  called  plenary 
inspiration.  It  gets  its  name  from  the  Latin  pknus,  mean- 
ing full,  complete.  It  teaches  that  the  Bible  writers  were 
so  inspired  as  to  put  them  fully,  completely,  in  possession 
of  truth,  and  enable  them  to  teach  that  which  was  wholly 
free  from  error. 

This  theory  has  already  been  overthrown  by  the  same 
arguments  and  facts  that  overthrew  the  doctrine  of  infal- 
libility; for  of  course,  if  there  are  any  mistakes  or  false 
teaching  in  the  Bible,  that  proves  that  the  writers  were 
not  possessors  of  plenary  inspiration. 

There  is  one  more  theory  left,  which  may  perhaps,  with 
sufficient  propriety,  go  under  the  name  of  the  Liberal. 
This  theory  teaches  that  every  soul  —  being  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  and  so  capable  of  communion  with  him  — 
is  open  to  the  divine  influx,  and  does  in  its  measure 
receive    it,  just    as    every   gulf  and   bay  and    inlet   and 


BIBLES,  AND   THE  BIBLE.  187 

shallow  and  sinuosity,  on  the  ocean-shore,  is  open  to  the 
inflow  of  the  tides.  But  human  capacity  for  the  recep- 
tion of  this  inspiration  is  conditioned  and  gauged  by  con- 
stitution and  character:  so  that  as,  on  the  seashore,  the 
openings  for  the  sea  range  all  the  way  from  gulfs  to  shal- 
lows, so  the  capabilities  of  human  souls  mark  gradations 
that  reach  all  the  way  from  the  evanescent  impulse  and 
uplifting  of  a  common  man  in  common  daily  life,  up  to 
the  magnificent  spiritual  insight  of  Paul.  And  it  holds 
out  the  hope  that,  by  faithfulness  to  what  we  have,  we 
may  grow  to  an  ever-enlarging  capacity,  on  the  principle 
that  "to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,"  so  that  by  and 
by  we  may  walk  under  a  whole  heaven  full  of  light,  and 
read  the  law  so  perfectly  written  on  our  hearts  that  we 
shall  be  a  law  unto  ourselves.  Perhaps  I  need  hardly  say 
that  this  is  my  own  belief. 

Before  proceeding  to  speak  of  its  sufficiency  or  value, 
let  me  indicate  to  you  what  seems  to  me  its  reason- 
able, scientific  foundation.  However  great  the  havoc  that 
science  has  made  with  the  forms  and  supports  of  theology, 
it  has  given  utterance,  through  its  most  distinguished 
mouthpiece,  Herbert  Spencer,  to  what  it  confesses  must 
be  an  eternal  basis  for  science  not  only,  but  also  for  reli- 
gion. It  shows  us  how  all  things  run  back  and  down 
into  an  underlying,  changeless,  and  yet  inexplicable  force 
and  life.  This  life  or  force  science  may  call  one  thing  or 
another,  as  it  will.  A  name  cannot  annihilate  it;  and  we 
will  call  it  God.  This  life  and  power  of  God  is  the  only 
possible  explanation  of  any  thing.     How  does  the  grass 


1 88  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


grow  ?  Science  answers,  "  Nature,  force ;  "  religion  an- 
swers, "  God."  How  came  the  stars  in  heaven,  and  how 
comes  their  light  to  us  ?  Science  says,  "  Nature,  force," 
once  more;  and  religion  again  replies,  "God."  How 
came  man  to  be,  and  whence  his  powers  of  thought  and 
love  ?  Once  more  science  repeats,  "  Nature,  force ;  "  and 
once  more  religion  says,  "  God." 

This  unseen  and  incomprehensible  God,  which  is  a 
Bible  doctrine  as  well  as  a  teaching  of  Spencer,  is  the 
life  of  all  that  lives,  and  the  motion  of  all  that  moves. 
Every  good  and  holy  thought,  every  noble  deed,  every 
high  endeavor,  is  by  and  through  so  much  of  God  as 
works  through  humanity;  for  without  him  we  can  do 
nothing.  He  dwells  in  us,  both  to  will  and  to  do.  "  In 
him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being."  This  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  doctrine  of  the  immanence 
of  God  in  the  universe  and  in  man,  —  all  things  by  God, 
and  through  God,  and  for  God. 

Inspiration,  then,  is  natural  to  the  human  soul,  and  its 
degree  is  determined  by  character  and  capacity ;  and  it  is 
not  confined  to  the  teachings  of  formal  religious  truth. 
Even  the  Old  Testament  teaches  that  certain  men  were 
inspired  of  God  to  work  in  linen  and  brass  and  cedar  and 
gold.  Why  not,  then,  Shakspere  and  Michael  Angelo, 
and  Socrates  and  Epictetus,  make  good  a  claim  to  think 
and  work  by  the  inspiration  of  God  ? 

Let  us  see.  All  truth,  of  whatever  kind  or  degree,  is 
from  God.  All  light  is  from  the  sun.  Whether  it  shine 
from  moon   or  planet ;  whether  it  be   reflected  by  brook 


BIBLES,  AND    THE  BIBLE.  189 


V 


or  mirror;  whether  it  stray,  a  broken  beam,  into  some 
prison-celi ;  whether  it  flare  in  the  gaslight,  or  glow  in 
the  coal  of  our  evening  grate,  —  all  light  is,  first  or  last, 
just  so  much  sunlight.  So,  whether  a  truth  be  in  Bible 
or  science,  in  Christianity  or  Paganism,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Jordan  or  the  Ganges,  wherever  found,  and  by 
whatever  path  it  come,  being  true,  it  must  be  from 
God. 

The  Bible,  then,  though  not  in  any  exclusive  sense  the\ 
word  of  God,  yet  does  contain  the  word  of  God ;  and,  in 
so  far  as  it  is  true,  so  does  any  and  every  other  book ; 
and  every  -book,   so   far   as  true,   is    sacred,   as   being  a 
reflection  of  the  divine.  / 

Do  I,  then,  put  the  Bible  on  the  same  level  with  all 
other  books  ?  By  no  manner  of  means.  Here  is  a 
primer,  and  here  is  Sir  Walter  Scott ;  both  are  books. 
Does  saying  that  degrade  Sir  Walter  to  the  level  of  the 
primer  ?  Here  is  Tupper,  and  here  is  Shakspere.  Be- 
cause you  call  them  both  poets,  does  that  bring  Shak- 
spere down  to  Tupper  ?  Does  calling  a  third-rate  painter 
an  artist  make  him  equal  to  Raphael  ?  I  would  still  put\ 
the  Bible  apart  by  itself,  as,  in  a  certain  grand  and  real 
sense,  what  the  ages  have  agreed  to  name  it  —  the  Book.f 
I  would  do  this,  because,  after  all  that  has  been  or  can 
be  said,  it  still,  by  the  degree  of  its  inspiration,  and  by 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  truth  it  contains,  outranks  the 
literature  and  religion  of  the  world. 

What  I  have  said  has  not  been  against,  and  does  not 
invalidate  the  work  of,  the  Bible.     It  is  not  against  any 


-4 


i go  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


claim  that  the  Bible  makes.  It  is  only  against  false  and 
unfounded  claims  made  on  its  behalf,  —  claims,  the  nature 
of  and  failure  to  prove  which,  are  constant  hinderances 
to  a  perception  of  its  real  worth,  and  so  injurious  to  the 
simple,  magnificent,  and  divine  truth  of  Christianity. 

The  central  teaching  of  the  Christianity  of  Jesus,  con- 
tained in  the  Bible,  is  the  true  theory  of  humanity,  and 
the  inspired  truth  of  God.  Much  that  has  passed  un- 
der its  name  is  superstition,  Pharisaism,  and  Paganism. 
The  truth  of  the  latter  statement  may  be  easily  proved 
by  study  and  comparison.  The  truth  of  the  first  may 
be  verified  by  reason,  and  demonstrated  by  trial.  Jesus' 
conception  of  God  is  the  grandest  that  the  mind  of  man 
can  yet  conceive;  and  his  theory  of  human  life  is  the 
outline  of  the  best  we  can  hope  for.  The  underlying 
principles  of  Christianity,  and  the  underlying  principles 
of  humanity,  as  it  moves  on  toward  perfection,  are  per- 
fectly identical.  This  alone  is  demonstrative  of  its  truth  ; 
and  that  it  is  true  is  the  highest  of  all  conceivable 
authority,  and  is  absolute  proof  that  it  came  from,  or 
was  inspired  by,  God.  Any  amount  of  evidence  or 
human  testimony  could  not  be  so  authoritative. 

So  far,  then,  as  the  central  truths  of  Christianity  are 
concerned,  here  is  certainty  beyond  any  thing  that  any 
theory  of  "  verbal "  or  "  plenary "  inspiration  could 
give. 

As  for  that  further  question,  so  often  asked,  How  ano 
I  to  know  whether  a  particular  teaching  is,  or  is  not,  true, 
if  all   the   Bible  is  not  to  be  received?     I  reply,  By  the 


BIBLES,  AND    THE  BIBLE.  191 

general  consent  of  the  highest  moral  sense  of  the  world." 
How  do  men  test  works  of  art,  and  assign  them  their 
rank?  By  the  general  consent  of  artists,  cultured  men, 
and  those  of  the  highest  taste  and  sense  of  beauty. 
There  is  no  standard  that  one  can  carry  in  his  pocket, 
that  is  able  to  guide  a  boor  in  the  selection  of  a  fine 
painting.  He  who  has  taste  knows  at  a  glance.  So  no/ 
amount  of  Bibles  can  help  unspiritual  and  selfish  men  to 
discern  spiritual  truth.  Can  a  book  in  the  pocket  or  on 
the  parlor  table  of  a  miser  help  him  discern  the  star-like 
glory  of  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive"? 
How  many  inspired  volumes  would  it  take  to  help  a  rake 
see  the  truth  of  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart "  ?  The 
purest,  best,  and  noblest  men  of  the  world  are  the  highest 
standards  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  just  as  the  greatest 
statesmen  and  jurists  are  standards  in  their  specialties, 
or  as  the  greatest  poets  and  artists  are  standards  in 
theirs.  Shakspere  is  a  criterion  by  which  to  judge  the 
world's  dramas ;  and  Titian  and  Angelo  are  the  last  ap- 
peal of  artists.  They  are  all  we  have ;  and  they  are 
enough.  They  bound  the  horizon  of  human  vision  in 
the  direction  of  the  beautiful.  And  so  Jesus  and  John 
and  Paul  are  moral  and  spiritual  seers.  They  overtop 
the  mass  of  the  world,  and  gaze  afar.  They  bound 
the  horizon  of  earth  in  the  direction  of  character  and 
God. 

Then  this  inspiration  is  not  something  once  given  for  a 
while,  and  then  forever  after  withdrawn.     It  is  too  great 


1 92  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


for  any  book ;  it  breaks  out  of  the  Bible,  and  becomes  a 
living  stream,  to  follow  us  in  all  our  lives,  and  humanity 
through  all  time,  as  the  brook  that  burst  out  of  the  rock, 
under  the  rod  of   Moses,  is  said  to  have  followed    and 
quenched  the  thirst  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness.     It  says, 
"Lo,   I   am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end   of   the 
world."     God   is  not  shut  up  in  covers.     "The  word  of^ 
God  is  not  bound  "  by  the  bookbinder,  any  more  than  in 
any  other  way.     Neither  is  it  dependent  on  the  Bible,  like^ 
a  physician  on  his  medicine-chest,  so  that  if  that  be  gone 
he  can  do  no  healing  work.     All  heathendom  is  not  "with- 
out God ; "  for  in  "  all  nations  those  that  fear  God   are 
accepted  of  him."     He  is  a  living,  loving,  guiding  spirit^ 
He  sives  lisrht  to  the  eyes,  and  strength  to  the  heart,  of 
the  nations.     He  has  more  truth  than  is  in  the  Bible  ; 
and  the  process  of  the  ages  is  but  the  unrolling  of  his 
divinely  written  scroll.     What  matter,  then,  though  we  do/ 
not  certainly  know  each  step  we  are  taking?     Are  the 
children  of  a  ship-captain  less  safe  because  they  do  not 
understand  the  log-book,  the  quadrant,  the  path   of   the 
vessel  through  the  waves?     A  wise  head  and  a  loving 
heart  are  in  the  cabin,  and  a  strong  and  wakeful  hand  is 
on  the  wheel.     The  captain  knows  where   he  is   going; 
and  he  knows  his  route ;  and  the  smallest,  weakest,  and 
most  ignorant  child  shall  go   sailing  up  the  harbor,  and 
when  the  anchor  is  dropped,  and  the  boat  lowered,  shall 
set  foot  on  the  wave-washed,  sandy  beach  of  the  everlast- 
ing shore,  just  as  surely  and  safely  as  the  captain  himself. 


BIBLES,  AXD    THE  BIBLE.  193' 


Have  faith,  then,  not  in  churches,  nor  creeds,  nor  coun^ 
cils,  nor  books  :  "have  faith  in  God;"  for  / 

"I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs. 

Not  in  vain  the  distance  beacons.     Forward,  forward  let  us  range  ; 
Let  the  great  world  spin  forever  down  the  ringing  grooves  of  change. 
Through  the  shadow  of  the  globe  we  sweep  into  the  younger  day." 

I  have  a  great  deal  of  doubt  of  men,  —  their  thoughts, 
their  creeds,  and  their  systems ;  but  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul  I  believe  in  God  and  the  future.  He  has  inspired 
and  led  in  all  the  past ;  he  inspires  and  leads  to-day ;  he 
will  inspire  and  lead  to-morrow;  for  "  he  is  the  same  yes- 
terday, to-day,  and  forever." 

13 


X. 

THE   DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT. 

The  atonement  is  the  central  doctrine  of  Christianity, 
and  of  right  and  necessity  is  it  so ;  for,  if  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  popular  system  be  once  admitted,  then 
the  necessity  of  this  doctrine  of  atonement  logically  fol- 
lows. Without  any  t/ie,  it  is  the  central  doctrine  of  all 
religion.  It  always  has  been,  and  it  always  will  be.  To 
understand  the  truth  of  this  statement,  let  us  ask  what 
atonement  means.  Atonement,  of  course,  can  have 
relation  to  the  situation  in  which  two  human  beings  stand 
to  each  other.  If  there  has  been  estrangement  between 
friends  on  account  of  an  injury  rendered  one  by  the  other, 
or  on  account  of  an  innocent  mutual  misunderstanding  on 
the  part  of  both,  atonement  means  bringing  them  together 
again,  reconciling  between  them,  clearing  away  the  mis- 
understanding, and  bringing  them  once  more  into  the 
position  of  their  old  sympathy  and  friendship.  Of  course, 
from  the  religious  standpoint,  atonement  must  always 
have  relation  to  the  position  which  humanity  occupies  in 
regard  to  God.  What  does  atonement  mean  here,  then, 
194 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  195 

and  what  shape  must  it  necessarily  assume  ?  It  will  be 
determined  always,  in  the  character  of  its  definition,  by 
the  conception  which  any  special  age  in  the  history  of  the 
world  shall  have  of  God,  of  humanity,  of  the  actual  rela- 
tion in  which  they  stand  to  each  other,  and  of  the  ideal 
relation  in  which  they  ought  to  stand.  If  you  will  think 
of  it  a  moment,  you  will  see  that  you  must  understand 
these  four  points  before  you  can  get  at  the  conception  of 
the  doctrine  of  atonement,  as  held  at  any  particular  time 
in  the  history  of  the  world  :  What  is  God  ?  what  is  man  ? 
what  relation  do  they  actually  sustain  ?  what  relation 
ought  they  to  sustain  ?  And  then  atonement  comes  in  as 
the  means  by  which  the  actual  is  changed  into  the  ideal, 
—  by  which  the  fact  becomes  what  ought  to  be  the  fact. 

If  I  should  prove  my  statement,  that  atonement  is  the 
central  doctrine  of  all  religion,  the  bringing  of  God  and 
man  at  one,  it  would  involve  the  necessity  on  my  part  of 
giving  you  the  universal  history  of  the  religious  thought 
and  the  religious  life  of  the  world.  Of  course,  within 
my  present  limits,  I  can  only  point  out  two  or  three  of 
the  more  important  stages  in  the  development  of  this 
thought,  along  with  the  applications  that  will  naturally 
follow  from  them.  Following,  then,  the  line  up  the 
pathway  of  humanity  by  which  the  progress  has  been 
attained  of  which  we  are  to-day  the  representatives,  and 
coming  down  from  the  most  ancient  times  to  the  present, 
you  will  recognize  three  distinct  and  separate  stages  in 
the  thought  of  man  concerning  this  great  doctrine  of 
atonement.     Go   back  to  the  earliest  times.     Atonement 


~1 

196  THE  RELIGION-  OF  EVOLUTION. 

then  possessed  nothing  whatever  of  any  moral  element, 
or  what  we  should  now  call  "  religious."  What  was 
the  conception  of  God,  the  conception  of  humanity,  and 
their  relations  by  which  the  form  of  the  doctrine  was 
determined,  in  those  earlier  ages  ?  The  gods  themselves 
were  not  moral  beings ;  they  did  not  represent  any  moral 
idea;  they  did  not  stand  for  the  human  conception  of 
righteousness.  They  were  simply  the  personified  forces 
of  the  world;  and  the  relations  which  men  sustained  to 
those  gods  were  not  moral  relations.  Men  never  bowed 
down  before  Jupiter,  or  before  Odin,  or  before  Brahma, 
with  the  consciousness  of  sin  such  as  men  speak  of  to-day, 
and  with  the  desire  to  be  made  purer  in  heart,  and  recon- 
ciled to  this  god,  who  to  them  was  the  ideal  of  righteous- 
ness and  truth ;  for,  as  I  have  said,  those  old  nature 
deities  were  not  the  representatives  of  righteousness  and 
truth.  They  were  simply  forces,  powers,  having  a  certain 
influence  over  men,  being  able  to  help  or  to  damage 
them,  and  which  they  stood  in  fear  of,  or  whose  favor 
they  wished  to  gain.  So  that  atonement,  as  I  said,  in\ 
this  first  stage  of  the  world's  religion,  possessed  no 
moral  element ;  it  was  not  a  reconciliation  between 
human  unrighteousness  and  divine  righteousness.  What/ 
was  it,  then  ?  Suppose  there  came  some  dire  calamity 
upon  a  person,  a  family,  or  a  nation,  so  that  they  con- 
ceived that  some  one  of  the  gods  was  angry  :  what  did 
they  do  ?  Why,  they  endeavored  to  find  out,  by  the  best 
means  they  had  at  their  disposal,  what  it  was  that  they 
had  done,  and  why  it  was  that  they  had   incurred   the 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  \yj 

divine  displeasure  ;  and  atonement,  to  their  minds,  was\ 
simply  an  endeavor  to  placate  the  wrath  of  offended  dehyy- 
It  meant  building  him  an  altar,  erecting  a  temple,  bring- 
ing to  him  offerings,  burning  sacrifices,  pouring  out  obla- 
tions, establishing  rituals,  —  doing  something  by  which  he 
should  be  appeased.  Or,  if  one  of  the  gods  was  indif- 
ferent, and  they  wished  to  gain  his  favor,  it  was  simply 
bringing  to  him  some  offering  that  they  supposed  he 
would  desire,  that  would  enlist  his  interest  on  their  behalf. 
Then,  as  I  have  said,  the  first  form  that  the  doctrine  of 
atonement  assumed  (this  attempt  to  bring  humanity  and 
God  together)  was  not  a  moral  form,  and  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  righteousness  or  with  morals  ;  but  out 
of  this  conception  of  the  Divine,  and  of  man's  relation- 
ship to  him,  grew  one  of  the  most  important  elements  of 
all  religions,  an  element  that  has  not  been  outgrown,  an 
element  that  largely  forms  and  gives  color  to  the  popular 
Christianity  even  of  to-day.  I  refer  to  the  element  of 
sacrifice,  not  as  the  giving  of  something  for  the  attain- 
ment of  something  else,  but  sacrifice  as  a  religious  cere- 
mony, —  burnt  offerings,  the  bringing  of  the  fruits  of  the 
field,  the  firstlings  of  the  flock,  as  offerings  to  God.  This 
idea  of  sacrifice  was  once  universal ;  and  it  grew  out  of  a 
conception  of  God  as  a  cruel  being,  who  delighted  in  suf- 
fering, who  rejoiced  in  the  smell  of  the  burning  fat  of  the 
victims  that  were  consumed  upon  the  altar ;  a  God  who 
was  ready  to  take  from  you  your  sacredest  and  your  dear- 
est, as  a  punishment  for  something  that  you  had  done  by 
which  you  had  given  him  offence.     I  say  this  world-wide 


X9S  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

doctrine  of  sacrifice,  this  doctrine,  false  in  its  form  (for 
the  doctrine  of  sacrifice  itself  is  universal  and  eternal),  — 
this  false  doctrine  of  sacrifice  grew  out  of  this  false 
and  partial  conception  of  God,  and  of  his  relation  to 
humanity. 

The  second  stage  in  this  development  of  the  doctrine 
of  atonement  is  represented  by  the  growth,  in  humanity, 
of  the  moral  conception  of  God.  It  is  represented  well  / 
enough,  and  perhaps  best  of  all  for  our  purpose,  in  the 
later  life  of  the  Jewish  people ;  for  at  first  the  gods  of  the 
Jews,  just  as  well  as  the  gods  of  other  nations,  were 
nature-deities,  and  did  not  represent  the  ideal  of  right- 
eousness as  Jehovah  came  to  represent  it  in  later  ages. 
There  grew  up,  I  say,  a  conception  of  God  as  a  moral  ^ 
being,  as  representing  the  highest  ideal  of  righteousness 
and  of  truth ;  and  there  grew  up,  along  with  this,  a  con- 
viction of  sin  on  the  part  of  humanity ;  for,  when  once 
their  grandest  ideal  of  righteousness  was  placed  on  the 
throne  of  the  universe,  then  there  came  into  their  hearts 
a  conviction  that  the  one  thing  that  God  demanded  of 
them  was  righteousness  in  heart  and  in  life.  But  they  stilly 
attempted  to  satisfy  this  moral  demand  by  the  old,  false 
form  of  sacrifice ;  that  is,  when  a  man  felt  a  conviction 
of  sin  in  his  heart,  recognized  the  fact  that  he  had  not 
lived  out  the  divine  ideal  of  righteousness  which  he  felt 
was  demanded  by  the  law  of  his  own  conscience,  not 
knowing  what  else  or  what  better  to  do,  he  still  brought 
to  the  altar  of  his  God  an  offering,  the  firstlings  of  his 
flock,   or  the  fruits   of    his   vineyard.     He   still   brought 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  199 


some  gift,  as  though  he  could  take  some  of  the  things 
that  belonged  to  God,  and,  by  giving  them  to  him,  make 
up  for  his  own  moral  deficiencies.  This  was  the  weak- 
ness, the  central  weakness,  of  the  old  Jewish  system  of 
religion ;  and  this  began  to  be  recognized  after  a  time  by 
the  highest  thinkers,  and  the  best  religious  teachers,  of 
the  Jewish  nation.  You  will  remember,  perhaps,  how  in 
the  first  book  of  Samuel  it  is  recorded  that  Saul  was  com- 
manded by  Jehovah  to  do  a  certain  thing,  and  did  not 
obey ;  but  afterward,  to  make  up  for  the  deficiency  in  his 
own  character  and  his  own  obedience,  he  brought  large 
offerings  to  the  altar  of  God ;  and  then  the  prophet 
Samuel  rebuked  him,  saying,  "Has  the  Lord  as  great 
delight  in  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  as  in  obeying 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  ?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than 
sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams;"  thus 
echoing  this  universal  and  world-wide  consciousness  that 
liberal  religion  stands  for  to-day,  and  stands  for,  in  a 
certain  distinct  way,  above  and  beyond  all  others,  —  that 
obedience,  righteousness  of  character  and  of  life,  are  the 
things  that  are  acceptable  to  the  Divine.  This  same  idea 
comes  out  in  the  writings  of  David,  in  the  touching  and 
beautiful  psalm  where  he  says,  "  For  thou  desirest  not  sac- 
rifice, else  would  I  give  it ;  thou  delightest  not  in  burnt- 
offering.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit :  a 
broken  and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  thou  wilt  not  de- 
spise." And  then,  in  the  later  prophets,  particularly  in 
Micah,  it  is  brought  out  more  clearly  still,  that  the  one 
good  which  God  demanded  was  righteousness,  and  not 


—J 

200  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


the  offering  of  "thousands  of  rams,  or  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil."  "  To  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God,"  is  the  thing  that  the  prophet 
demands  as  the  way  by  which  we  can  bring  humanity 
into  accord  with  the  divine  life.  This  old  doctrine  of 
sacrifice  is  tried  in  the  realm  of  morals,  in  the  effort  of 
humanity  to  atone  for  its  sins,  and  to  make  reconciliation 
between  itself  and  God,  —  is  tried,  and  is  found  wanting. 

The  third  great  form  of  the  doctrine  of  the  atone** 
ment  is  that  which  is  represented  in  popular  Christianity/A 
In  order  that  it  may  be  understood,  I  must  give,  just 
as  I  did  in  the  other  case,  the  fundamental  concep- 
tion of  God,  of  humanity,  and  of  what  people  supposed 
human  salvation  meant.  There  had  grown  up  in  the 
later  Jewish  life  a  belief  in  immortality,  —  a  belief  which 
was  not  apparent  in  their  early  history  and  teaching. 
There  had  grown  up  the  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man,  — 
a  doctrine  also  not  apparent  in  the  earliest  teaching  and 
belief  of  the  Jews.  It  was  believed  that,  on  account  of 
this  fall  of  man,  death  had  come  into  the  world ;  that,  if 
man  had  not  sinned  and  fallen,  he  would  have  lived  here 
forever.  It  was  further  believed  that,  on  account  of  this 
fall,  man  had  come  under  the  wrath  of  God,  into  the 
hands  of  Satan  and  his  angels :  so  that  after  death, 
unless  there  was  some  redemption  found  for  him,  he 
must  endure  the  misery  and  torment  of  a  never-ending 
hell.  The  one  thing,  then,  according  to  this  conception 
of  God,  of  the  nature  of  man,  and  of  their  relations,  — 
the   one   thing   that  was   needed   was   some   power,  not 


i 

or 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATOAEMEJVT.  20 

necessarily  touching  the  present  life  of  humanity,  bu*. 
some  power  that  should  reach  beyond  the  grave,  that 
should  grasp  humanity  in  its  fallen  condition,  rescue  it 
from  the  clutches  of  the  Evil  One,  save  it  from  the  wrath 
to  come,  and,  delivering  it  from  its  dark  destiny  of  abid- 
ing in  the  midst  of  torment  forever  in  one  place,  open 
for  it  the  gates  of  the  city  of  life,  and  suffer  it  to  enter 
into  the  bliss  and  joy  of  God  forever.  This  was  the 
problem  to  be  solved.  How  was  it  solved  ?  There  grew'* 
up  the  doctrine  that  Christ  was  the  atoning  sacrifice  that 
had  been  prefigured  through  all  ages,  whom  all  the  world 
had  looked  forward  to,  and  who  now  had  wrought  the 
one  work  by  which  humanity  was  to  be  saved  in  the 
future  life.  That  there  is  no  consistent  revelation  in, 
regard  to  this  Christian  doctrine  of  atonement,  that 
makes  it  binding  on  the  thought  of  all  honest  persons, 
is  apparent  from  one  or  two  very  remarkable  facts.  In 
the  first  place,  you  may  search  all  through  the  history  of 
the  words  and  teachings  of  Jesus  himself,  and  you  may 
search  in  vain,  to  find  any  doctrine  whatever  of  atone- 
ment, as  it  is  popularly  understood  to-day.  There  is 
not  one  single  word  that  teaches  or  supports  it  in  any 
accredited  utterance  of  Jesus ;  so  that  we  are  brought 
face  to  face  with  this  remarkable  fact :  if  Jesus  did  come 
into  the  world  to  bring  about  such  results  as  are  claimed, 
he  utterly  failed  to  speak  one  word  in  regard  to  the 
great  central  object  of  his  mission,  —  apparently  forgot 
entirely  the  burden  of  the  message  he  had  been  sent  to 
deliver.     And  the  other  remarkable  fact  is  this  :  that  the 


202  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

doctrine  of  the  atonement,  as  held  by  Christendom,  has 
itself  undergone  changes  and  transformations,  and  has 
followed  the  line  of  a  definite  progress  from  the  first 
until  now.  It  has  assumed  some  fifteen  or  twenty  differ- 
ent shapes,  during  the  history  of  Christendom.  In  the 
first  place,  Jesus  was  supposed  to  be  a  price  paid  to  the 
devil  for  the  purchase  of  humanity.  That  is,  humanity, 
by  sin  and  the  fall,  had  become  the  property  of  Satan, 
he  having  a  right  to  own  and  control  it.  Jesus  was  his 
ancient  rival  in  heaven,  as  represented  in  the  poetry  of 
"  Paradise  Lost ; "  and  so  there  was  a  bargain  made, 
by  which  Jesus  was  to  be  delivered  over  into  the  hands 
of  Satan,  that  he  might  work  his  will  on  him,  in  considera- 
tion of  the  salvation  of  certain  numbers  of  the  human 
race,  who  were  to  be  redeemed  by  this  purchase,  and  who 
were  to  take  the  place  vacated  by  him  in  heaven.  But 
Jesus  being  divine,  so  that,  as  the  New  Testament  says, 
he  could  not  be  "holden  of  death,"  when  he  had  de- 
scended into  hell,  broke  away  from  the  power  of  Satan 
by  which  he  was  held,  burst  the  gates  of  Hades,  and 
escaped,  leading  a  great  multitude  of  followers,  who  for 
ages  had  been  chained  in  the  dark  abysses  of  despair :  so 
that  Jesus,  by  his  superior  wit  and  his  superior  power, 
outwitted  Satan,  and  delivered  not  only  himself  from  his 
clutches,  but  all  those  who  thereafter  should  believe  on 
him.  This  was  the  first  form  of  the  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment, which  was  held  in  the  Church  for  ages.  You  will 
find  traces  of  it  all  through  the  New  Testament,  if  you 
read  it  in  the  light  of  this  fact;   and  we  read  it  in  the 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  203 

Prayer-Book  to-day.  It  is  recited  in  the  Episcopal,  the 
Anglican,  and  the  Catholic  churches  every  day,  how  Jesus 
actually  descended  into  hell,  and  how  he  delivered  him- 
self thence. 

Then  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  was  changed,  and 
took  on  the  form  of  Christ  being  a  sacrifice  to  appease 
the  wrath  of  an  angry  God.  This  was  held,  also,  foj^ 
ages.  Then  it  took  on  the  form  that  is  prominently  held 
in  what  is  called  "New  England  theology"  to-day,  —  the 
doctrine  that  God  somehow  must  sacrifice  Christ  as  a 
governmental  necessity.  That  is,  here  was  this  great 
moral  government  of  God,  on  which  the  life  and  safety 
and  peace  of  humanity  depended ;  and  it  was  claimed  that 
he  could  not  forgive  humanity,  and  still  maintain  the  dig- 
nity and  the  power  of  his  moral  law  intact,  unless  there 
were  found  some  sacrifice,  some  one  who  would  give 
himself  voluntarily  as  a  victim,  so  that  it  might  be  made 
manifest  to  the  universe  that  no  man  could  disobey  the 
laws  of  God  with  impunity;  and  so  Christ  was  found, 
and  he  gave  himself  thus.  And  then  the  doctrine  has 
taken  on  the  form  of  substitution,  that  has  been  preached 
by  the  evangelists  very  forcibly  and  very  prominently 
during  the  last  two  or  three  years.  Christ  became  the 
purchase  for  the  elect,  —  a  certain  part  of  humanity  cho- 
sen from  all  eternity.  Christ  came,  and  suffered  the 
precise  amount  which  they  would  have  had  to  suffer,  if 
they  had  been  chained  in  darkness  and  torment  through 
all  eternity,  and  thus  he  purchased  their  redemption  j 
and  they,  through  the  power  of  God  and  by  faith  in  him, 


•J 

204  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


are  redeemed  and  set  free,  and  permitted  to  enter  on  the 
divine  life. 

The  last  form  that  I  care  to  notice  at  this  time,  and 
which  is  a  recent  one,  is  that  which  is  received  and 
promulgated  by  the  younger  clergymen  of  the  country; 
the  one  that  is  popularly  held  and  taught  by  what  is  called 
"liberal  orthodoxy;"  the  one  which  is  intimately  associ- 
ated with  the  name  and  fame  and  life-work  of  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Bushnell,  recently  deceased ;  the  doctrine  that 
Christ,  by  his  life,  by  his  teachings,  by  his  sufferings,  by 
his  death,  revealed  the  righteousness  and  love  of  God, 
and  became  a  power  for  the  conviction  of  sin,  and  an 
impulse  toward  a  life  of  righteousness  on  the  part  of 
humanity.  This  is  the  moral  view  of  the  atonement  \J 
and  this,  I  believe,  contains  in  it  a  central  kernel  of  truth, 
of  power,  of  life,  that  will  abide  forever:  for  Christ,  by 
his  life,  by  his  teachings,  by  his  sufferings,  by  his  death, 
did  reveal  the  majesty  and  the  glory  and  the  love  and  the 
righteousness  of  God ;  and  he  did  convince  men,  when 
they  contrasted  their  life  and  character  with  his  own,  —  he 
did  convince  men  of  sin ;  and  he  has  become  a  moral 
impulse  to  renovate  the  life  of  thousands  and  thousands 
of  men,  and  will  become  such  an  impulse  still  in  the  ages 
of  the  future. 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  that  I  believe  to  be  the 
one  that  shall  be  permanent  and  universal  in  the  future 
history  of  the  race,  does  not  slough  off  and  leave  behind 
this  moral  view  of  the  atonement  which  I  have  just  de- 
scribed.    It  takes  it  up  into  itself,  and  carries  it  along  as 


— ./ 

THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  205 

part  of  the  universal  and  world-wide  doctrine :  for  the 
moral  power  of  Christ  for  the  renovation  of  humanity  is 
not  expended  ;  and  it  does  not  depend  at  all  upon  the 
theological  conception  of  Christ's  person,  or  his  nature, 
or  his  birth,  or  his  death,  or  his  resurrection.  Christ  has 
become  part  of  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  humanity, 
a  part  that  cannot  be  eliminated,  a  part  that  shall  in- 
crease, and  become  mightier  and  mightier  yet,  as  it  takes 
its  proper  place  in  the  history  of  the  religious  thought 
and  life  of  the  world. 

What,  then,  is  the  universal  doctrine  which   I  believe 
must  bear  sway  in  the  future  ?     And  here,  again,  I  must 
start  with  new  definitions.     We  have  rejected  the  doctrines 
of  the  fall   of  man.     It  is  not  something  that  we  have/ 
speculatively  cast  aside  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  does 
not  please  our  thought,  or  because  we  have  chosen  to  take 
up  with  some  new-fangled  notion.     The  doctrine  of  the  * 
fall  of  man  is  proved,  absolutely  proved,  to  have   been 
untrue ;   and  precisely  the  reverse  of  that  is  established 
as  a  matter  of  fact  and  demonstration  to-day.     Humanity 
has  never  fallen.     Humanity  has  never  been  so  high,  so 
noble,  so  pure,  so  true,  as  it  is  to-day.     Starting  in  the/ 
dust,  it   has,  through  struggle    and    sorrow  and  toil   and 
tears,  climbed  up  to  its  present  position  of  grandeur  and 
of  glory,  where  it  catches  an  outlook  of  the  future  that  is 
cheering,  inspiriting,  and  divine.     Of  course,  then,  the  fall 
being  given  up  as  a  part  of  the  doctrine  of  the  religion 
of  to-day  and  of  to-morrow,  there  is  no  necessity  for  any 
contrivance,  on  the  part  of  God  or  man,  by  which  the  sup- 


2o6  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


posed  fall  is  to  be  retrieved.  The  old  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment has  no  place  in  such  a  conception  of  humanity  as 
leaves  out  the  doctrine  of  the  fall ;  and  there  is  one  weak 
position  of  what  is  now  called  "liberal  orthodoxy."  I 
know  a  great  many  ministers,  and  a  large  number  of  per- 
sons, who  still  claim  to  be  orthodox,  who  have  totally 
rejected  the  doctrine  of  the  fall ;  and  yet,  illogically, 
they  retain  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement :  for,  if  there  \ 
was  no  fall,  there  is  no  need  of  atonement,  in  the  theo- 
logical sense.  Then,  the  salvation  that  humanity  seeks/ 
to-day  has  undergone  an  entire  and  important  change.  It"^ 
is  no  longer  a  salvation  simply  from  future  peril.  The/ 
salvation  we  need  is  a  salvation  that  shall  take  us  right 
here  to-day ;  that  shall  take  us  in  our  homes,  that  shall 
take  us  in  our  social  life,  that  shall  take  us  in  our  busi- 
ness life,  that  shall  make  us  faithful  in  all  departments  of 
our  career.  This  is  the  salvation  that  the  age  is  longing 
for,  and  reaching  out  after  the  attainment  of.  We  care 
very  little  to-day,  comparatively,  as  to  the  chances  that 
await  us  when  we  have  passed  beyond  the  veil  that 
separates  between  this  life  and  the  next ;  for  we  know 
that  if  as  true,  faithful  men  and  women,  clean-hearted  and 
clean-handed,  we  can  pass  under  that  veil  when  the 
divine  hand  has  lifted  it,  we  may  stand  unabashed  in 
the  presence  of  our  loving  Father,  who  has  led  us 
through  this  life,  and  has  taken  us  to  himself.  The  sal- 
vation we  need  then  is  a  present  salvation.  V 
And  one  more  change  has  come.  It  is  no  longer  a  sal- 
vation of  the  soul  simply :  it  is  a  salvation  of  the  man./ 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  207 


We  recognize  no  longer  any  soul  that  man  carries  about 
with  him  as  a  piece  of  property,  that  he  can  get  insured, 
that  he  can  provide  for  the  safety  of  in  all  contingencies 
and  changes  in  the  future  of  life.  We  recognize  no 
division  in  human  nature.  Human  nature  is  one ;  and 
body,  mind,  and  spirit  are  only  different  forms  of  the 
manifestation  of  this  one  conscious  life  that  we  call  self. 
The  salvation  that  is  needed,  then,  is  not  salvation  of  the 
soul :  it  is  salvation  of  the  body ;  it  is  salvation  of  the 
mind;  it  is  salvation  of  the  spirit;  it  is  something  that 
regards  humanity  as  a  unit,  and  that  seeks  to  save  man 
all  over  and  all  through. 

And  there  is  another  change.  There  has  been  growing 
lately  in  the  thought  of  the  intelligent  part  of  the  world, 
and  it  is  to  grow  more  and  more  in  the  future,  a  doctrine 
which,  in  philosophical  language,  is  called  the  "  solidarity 
of  humanity ; "  that  is,  the  doctrine  that  not  only  the 
individual  is  a  unit,  but  that  humanity  collective  is  one, 
and  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  saving  myself,  or  saving\ 
yourself,  while  we  leave  the  rest  of  humanity  "  out  in  the 
cold."  Humanity  is  a  unit:  we  must  go  up  or  down 
together.  We  recognize  it  sometimes,  —  wake  up  to  \y 
occasionally  here  in  Boston,  or  in  the  other  great  cities  of 
the  world.  Now  and  then  there  comes  the  sweep  of  a 
pestilence  :  what  does  it  mean  ?  It  comes  creeping  about 
the  doorways  of  the  great,  looking  into  the  windows  of 
the  rich,  striking  down  the  fair,  the  beautiful,  the  edu- 
cated, the  cultivated,  from  the  highest  circles  of  society. 
What  does  it  mean  ?     It  means  that  the  culture  and  edu- 


2oS  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

cation  and  wealth  of  a  city  have  neglected  the  lowest,  the 
poorest,  the  outcast,  and  the  mean.  It  means  that  some* 
where  in  the  city  there  is  collected  a  centre  of  ignorance, 
a  centre  of  crime,  a  centre  of  filth,  a  centre  of  neglect, 
that  has  turned  at  last  into  a  centre  of  disease ;  so  that 
the  breath  of  God's  heaven,  as  it  sweeps  over  the  city,  has 
taken  this  suffering  and  plague  that  was  neglected  and 
left  on  one  side,  or  in  one  spot  in  the  city,  and  has  swept 
the  infection  into  every  house  and  into  every  home.  It 
means  that  the  city  was  one  life,  and  that  the  head  of  the 
city  could  not  with  safety  neglect  the  feet ;  that  the  upper 
circles  of  the  city  could  not  with  safety  to  themselves 
neglect  the  foundation;  that  the  city  life  was  one;  and 
that  there  is  no  possibility  of  saving  the  upper  while 
neglecting  the  lower.  This  lesson  has  been  taught,  if  one 
will  look  for  it,  hundreds  of  times  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Take  the  old  Roman  civilization,  surrounded  on 
every  hand  by  barbarism.  By  and  by  the  grandeur  of 
that  classic  life,  that  classic  thought,  that  classic  writing, 
that  classic  art,  is  swept  to  the  winds  by  the  down-coming 
from  the  North  of  the  avalanche  of  barbarism  that  they 
had  looked  upon  with  scorn  and  neglect.  They  had  tried 
to  save  the  Grecian  and  the  Roman  world,  without  saving 
the  rest  of  it ;  and  the  barbarism  overwhelmed  and  swal- 
lowed up  the  civilization.  Take  another  hint  from  the 
life  of  France,  just  preceding  the  French  Revolution. 
Never  has  there  been  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  culture  and  refinement  and  art  and  pleasure  were 
carried  to  a  higher  pitch  than  in  the  last  years  of   the 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  209 

French  empire.  But  beneath  it  was  a  life  looked  down 
upon  with  scorn  and  neglect  by  the  rich  and  the  great; 
and  that  life  by  and  by  rose  beneath  this  fabric  that 
was  resting  upon  it  as  a  foundation,  —  rose  as  the  flood 
rises  under  the  ice  in  spring,  broke  it  into  atoms,  and 
whelmed  the  fair  life  that  was  above  it,  beneath  its 
cold,  dark,  slimy,  and  muddy  waters.  The  sans  culottes 
were  in  the  palaces  and  the  houses  of  the  great.  There 
was  no  possibility  of  saving  a  few,  while  leaving  the  many 
outcast  and  neglected. 

The  atonement,  then,  of  the  religion  of  the  present, 
and  that  shall  be  the  religion  of  the  future,  —  the  doctrine 
of  atonement  that  is  permanent,  that  is  universal, — must 
be  something  capable  of  taking  this  living,  throbbing, 
pulsating  humanity  of  ours  in  its  entirety,  and  bringing 
it,  body  and  mind  and  soul,  into  sympathy  with  the  life 
of  God  right  here,  now;  not  to-morrow,  not  in  another 
world. 

Who,  then,  are  doing  this  work  of  atonement  ?  Who 
are  the  saviors  of  the  race  in  this  universal  sense  ? 
Jesus  is  one  of  them.  For,  as  I  said,  the  moral  teachings 
and  the  life  and  power  of  Jesus  have  entered  as  perma- 
nent elements  into  the  religious  life  of  the  world;  and, 
thank  God  for  it !  they  cannot  be  eliminated.  But  this 
doctrine  shall  not  hereafter  be  confined  to  Jesus.  In 
their  sphere,  and  according  to  individual  power,  individual 
effort,  and  individual  achievement,  it  is  possible,  and  it 
shall  be  a  fact,  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
world   shall   help   on   the   work   of   universal   atonement 


210  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

between  humanity  and  God.  The  great  army  of  truth- 
seekers  over  the  world,  —  those  who  patiently  and  per- 
sistently, in  loneliness  and  neglect,  misunderstood  and 
outcast,  day  and  night,  are  seeking  after  truth,  —  they  are 
helping  on  such  an  understanding  in  regard  to  God  and 
man,  and  the  relationship  existing  between  them,  as  shall 
culminate  at  last  in  this  perfect  work  of  atonement 
between  God  and  man.  Studying  the  stars,  reading  the 
records  of  creation  as  the  hand  of  God  has  written  them 
in  the  hieroglyphics  on  the  rocks,  that  have  been  laid 
down  slowly,  age  after  age,  from  the  first  dawn  of  the 
world  until  to-day ;  tracing  back  the  record  of  the  life  of 
man,  finding  out  what  man  is,  where  he  came  from,  how 
he  came  to  be  what  he  is  to-day;  tracing  the  dim  and 
distant  records  of  the  earliest  civilization,  the  experiments 
that  man  has  tried,  succeeded  in,  failed  in,  tried  again, 
in  the  work  of  bringing  to  pass  a  perfect  society,  —  the 
experiments  of  man  in  government,  in  attempting  to  bring 
about  the  time  when  the  statute-book  should  represent  the 
really  high  life  and  thought  and  justice  of  the  best  men 
of  the  world,  —  this  great  army  of  truth-seekers,  I  say, 
are  first  and  foremost  in  this  grand  world-wide  work  of 
atonement.  And  then  there  is  the  army  of  reformers  : 
not  those  self-constituted  reformers  who  expect  to  save 
the  world  by  passing  a  series  of  resolutions,  or  calling 
public  meetings ;  but  those  men  who  are  studying  the 
early  facts  of  the  world,  who  are  attempting  to  adjust  the 
relations  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  between  labor 
and  capital ;  those  men  who  are  attempting  to  bring  about 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT  211 

a  mutual  understanding  on  the  part  of  the  alienated  ele- 
ments and  classes  of  society;  those  men  who  are  engaged 
in  what  seemed  to  be  at  first  purely  secular  work,  —  the 
discoverers,  the  inventors,  of  the  world,  —  those  men  who 
are  studying  the  laws  of  nature,  who  are  making  them 
obedient  servants  and  helpers  of  humanity.  Why,  some 
of  the  purely  physical  discoveries  of  the  world  bear  a 
closer  relation  to  the  religious  life  and  the  future  welfare 
of  humanity,  than  do  some  of  the  great  religions  of  ages 
in  the  history  of  the  past.  To-day  the  telegraph  and 
steam  are  doing  more,  and  they  have  done  more  in  fifty 
years,  to  bring  about  a  sense  of  universal  brotherhood,  to 
help  humanity  feel  that  it  is  one,  and  that  all  humanity  is 
related  to  every  other  part  of  humanity,  —  I  say  these  two 
agencies,  the  telegraph  and  steam-power,  have  done  more 
to  bring  about  this,  than  all  the  preaching  and  all  the 
churches  of  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years.  So  the  men 
who  are  seeking  to  regulate  the  sanitary  life  of  cities,  to 
give  the  poor,  the  outcast,  the  down-trodden,  an  opportu- 
nity to  live,  physically,  according  to  the  laws  of  health, 
of  decency,  —  these  men  are  doing  more  than  hundreds 
of  those  who  simply  preach  and  pray,  in  the  work  of  lift- 
ing up  humanity  toward  God,  in  bringing  about  such  a  set 
of  conditions  as  shall  make  it  possible  for  those  who  are 
lowest  in  the  scale  of  humanity  to  climb  up  into  decency 
and  self-respect,  and  so  to  find  out  that  they  have  brains, 
that  they  have  hearts,  that  they  have  spiritual  natures  that 
link  them  to  God.  And  then  the  great  army  of  witnesses 
for  righteousness   and  truth,   the  sufferers   and   martyrs, 


212  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

those  who  have  had  some  insight  of  the  divine  principles 
of  righteousness,  and  who  have  stood  for  them  in  the  face 
of  mobs  and  angry  crowds ;  who  have  stood  for  liberty, 
who  have  stood  for  the  rights  of  the  down-trodden,  who 
have  been  the  martyrs  of  the  outcast  races  of  the  world, 
—  those  men  who  have  dared  to  stand  in  the  face  of 
death,  while  the  flames  were  kindling  about  them,  or, 
stretched  on  instruments  of  torture,  have  dared  to  die 
rather  than  yield  one  jot  or  tittle  of  truth,  —  such  are  the 
men  who  are  bringing  about  this  grand,  universal  work 
of  atonement  between  the  human  and  the  divine.  And, 
more  than  that,  there  is  not,  as  I  have  said,  one  single 
person  who  reads  this,  nor  a  single  human  being  alive, 
who  may  not,  in  his  sphere,  become  as  divine  a  savior  as 
Jesus,  or  any  of  the  grandest  and  sweetest  souls  of  his- 
tory. 

Be  faithful  and  true  in  your  relations  where  you  are 
placed.  Stand  by  the  principles  of  right  as  you  see  them 
to-day.  Be  true,  be  honest,  be  faithful,  be  fearless.  See 
what  you  can  of  the  divine,  and  embody  it  as  far  as  you 
can  in  your  own  life,  and  in  the  lives  of  those  about  you ; 
and  you  atone,  you  help  bring  on  that  time  when  the  life 
of  all  humanity  shall  be  pervaded  by  the  spirit  and  the 
life  of  God. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  just  one  thought  as  my  last. 
I  pointed  out  at  the  first  how  a  false  conception  of 
sacrifice  was  the  central  principle  in  the  idea  of  atone- 
ment in  the  early  ages  of  the  world.  All  are  well  aware 
how  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  on  the  cross  is  claimed  as  the 


THE  DOCTRINE   OF  ATONEMENT.  213 

central  idea  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  as  held  in  the 
popular  religion ;  and  the  idea  of  sacrifice  remains,  trans- 
formed, taking  on  a  new  shape,  having  a  new  significance. 
Sacrifice  shall  still  be  the  central  idea  of  the  world-wide 
and  universal  doctrine  of  atonement,  —  the  sacrifice  of 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  the  sacrifice  of  ease,  the  sacrifice 
of  wealth,  the  sacrifice  of  whatever  be  needful  to  enable 
you  to  stand  for  the  highest  ideal  you  can  discern  of  truth 
and  right.  Nothing  that  is  worthy  of  attainment  has  ever 
been  gained  in  the  history  of  humanity,  and  never  will  be, 
except  by  the  pathway  of  the  cross,  as  Jesus  used  the 
term,  —  the  cross,  in  its  grand  and  central  significance. 
If  you  wish  to  become  rich,  it  must  be  by  the  sacrifice 
of  ease  and  pleasure,  the  sacrifice  of  ten  thousand  other 
pursuits  that  you  might  like  to  follow.  If  you  wish  for 
pleasure,  you  must  sacrifice  every  thing  that  stands  in  the 
way  of  pleasure.  If  you  wish  for  fame,  for  power  and 
influence,  you  must  study,  and  struggle,  and  train  your- 
self, and  sacrifice,  to  attain  it.  And  so  you  find  the  law 
universal :  whatever  you  wish  to  gain,  you  can  gain  it  only 
by  the  way  of  the  cross,  —  by  the  giving-up  of  something 
that  stands  in  the  way  of  attainment.  Look  through 
every  nation,  every  religion,  every  civilization  of  the  past, 
and  you  find  it  a  world-wide  truth,  that  the  men  who  have 
stood  for  the  highest,  who  have  helped  on  the  progress  of 
humanity,  who  have  lifted  men  up  toward  God,  have  been 
the  men  who  have  been  misunderstood,  who  have  been 
maligned,  who  have  been  outcast,  who  have  been  lonely, 
forsaken  by  friends,  forsaken  by  kindred,  out  of  sympathy 


214  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


with  their  time,  daring  to  stand  alone  with  God,  to  sacri- 
fice fame,  to  sacrifice  reputation,  to  sacrifice  money,  to 
sacrifice  ease,  to  sacrifice  every  thing  that  stood  between 
them  and  God,  They  have  been  the  men  who  dared  to 
trample  pleasure  and  wealth  and  fame  underneath  their 
feet ;  marching  ahead,  the  pioneers  of  humanity,  and 
awaiting  praise  when,  by  and  by,  grateful  after-times  are 
willing  to  write  their  epitaphs,  and  honor  them  on  their 
tombstones.  So  that  still  it  is  true,  applying  the  words  to 
any  individual  who  works  for  the  atonement  of  humanity, 
applying  them  to  humanity  collective,  applying  them  to 
Jesus,  applying  them  to  any  and  every  one  who  has  in  any 
measure  been  a  savior  of  his  kind,  still  those  words  are 
true,  "  Surely  he  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and  carried  our 
sorrows :  yet  we  did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten  of  God, 
and  afflicted.  But  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgres- 
sions, he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities  ;  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  wis  upon  him  \  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed." 


V 


XI. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION. 

If  evolution  is  true,  what  becomes  of  Christianity? 
Are  the  two  antagonistic,  so  that  one  necessarily  excludes 
the  other  ?     That  depends  upon  definitions.     Prof.  Tayler 
Lewis  said,  not  long  ago,  that  the  dogma  of  the  super- 
natural and  instantaneous  creation  of  man,  by  the  fiat  of 
a  purely  personal  God,  was  the  very  foundation  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  essential  to  its  existence.     But  I  utterly  fail  to 
see  how  the  two  have  any  necessary  relation  to  each  other. 
So  I  would  answer  our  opening  question  by  saying,  Since  \ 
evolution  is  true,  therefore  Christianity,  one  of  its  prod- 
ucts, is  also  true.     This  statement  will  hold  only  of  its/ 
essential  life.     Forms  and  statements  may  change  indefi- 
nitely, while  the  same  life  that  created  the  forms  remains. 
The  life  that  animates  the  caterpillar,  as  it  crawls  slowly 
along  the  ground,  is  the  same  life  that  soars  and  floats 
and  glitters  in  the  butterfly.     The  transformation  extin- 
guishes not  the  life.     One  of  the  results  of  evolution  can-^ 
not  possibly  contradict  evolution  itself.     I  am  none  the/ 
less  a  Christian,  then,  because  I  am  an  evolutionist.     I 

215 


2i6  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


will  even  say  I  am  a  Christian  because  I  am  an  evolution- 
ist. To  justify  this  position,  to  trace  the  progress  of  reli- 
gion until  it  culminates  in  Christianity,  and  to  show  the 
relation  it  sustains  to  those  religions  that  have  preceded 
it,  —  this  is  my  present  purpose. 

The  first  form  that  the  religious  thought  of  the  world 
clothed  itself  in  was  fetichisrm      It  sprung  up  naturally 
and  necessarily  out  of  the  best  and  highest  thought  of  the 
time.     It  is  nothing  to  be  contemptuously  despised,  any 
more  than  the  infant's  first  efforts  at  speech.     It  accorded 
with  all  the  philosophy  and  facts  then  known,  quite  as 
well  as  Christianity  to-day  harmonizes  with  the  knowledge 
of  to-day.     It  agreed  perfectly  with  what  was  known  of 
the  universe,  and  sprang  out  of  that  knowledge.     It  was 
just  as  necessary  a  phase  of  the  religious  life  of  humanity, 
as  twilight  is  a  necessary  phase  of  sunrising.     Look  at 
the   process   of   thought   out   of  which   it   sprung.     Man 
recognized  his  own  personal  will  and  choice  as  the  source 
of  all  his  movements  and  power.     This  was  the  only  kind 
of  power  he  knew  any  thing  about :  therefore,  whenever 
he  saw  exhibitions  of  life  and  power,  he  could  account  for 
them  only  on  the  ground  of  his  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence.    Man  can  never  conceive  of  any  thing  that  tran- 
scends  all   his   knowledge.      Thus   his   experience   com- 
pelled him  to  endow  with  personal  will  and  choice  every 
thing  about  him.     His  dreams  made  him  familiar  with  the 
thought  of  spiritual  beings  existing  apart  from  substantial 
bodies;  and  these  souls  he  thought  of  as  the  source  of 
life  and  power.     And  it  was  natural  for  his  crude  thought, 


or  tbh 

TJNIVEF 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  217 

to  endow  all  things  with  souls.  Thus,  when  a  savage 
buried  along  with  the  dead  warrior  his  horse,  his  bow  and 
arrow  and  spear,  his  kettle  and  his  cooking  utensils  and 
tent  appurtenances,  he  was  not  so  silly  as  to  suppose  that 
he  was  going  to  take  these  material  things  with  him  to 
the  happy  hunting-grounds :  he  believed  that  the  souls  of 
these  things  would  accompany  and  still  serve  and  be  use- 
ful to  the  soul  of  the  warrior.  Stones,  sticks,  trees,  rep- 
tiles, birds,  springs,  rivers,  —  all  things  were  thus  alive  to 
him,  and  represented  a  personal  consciousness  like  his 
own. 

And,  as  I  have  already  shown,  since  the  principal 
forces  encompassing  early  humanity  were  forces  that  hurt 
them,  on  the  action  of  which  they  could  not  calculate,  and 
of  which  they  were  therefore  afraid,  they  thought  that 
most  of  these  beings  were  evil-disposed  toward  them. 
They  did  not  know  nature  enough  to  control  it,  and  make 
its  powers  serve  them,  and  they  had  not  philosophy 
enough  to  see  how  apparent  evils  might  become  real 
good :  so,  of  necessity,  their  first  gods  were  devils,  and 
the  earliest  religions  were  devil-worship.  Even  to-day, 
should  you  go  to  people  in  this  condition  of  mind  (and 
fetich-worship  is  still  widely  prevalent),  and  tell  them 
about  God,  they  would  perhaps  inquire,  "  But  what  if  this 
great  being  should  eat  me  ? "  and  the  effect  would  very 
likely  be,  that  they  would  run  off  affrighted  into  the 
jungle,  to  get  away  from  God. 

You  will  notice  here  what  you  will  find  to  be  true 
always  and  everywhere,   that   the   prevailing   thought   of 


218  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

God  accords  with,  and  is  on  the  same  level  as,  the  preva- 
lent philosophy  of  the  universe,  the  theory  of  the  world. 

The  next  step  in  the  evolution  of  religion  was  to 
polytheism.  This  is  only  fetichism  partially  generalized. 
That  is,  instead  of  making  each  tree  a  god,  they  rose  to 
the  thought  of  one  god  for  all  the  trees.  Instead  of  each 
frog  or  serpent  being  a  deity,  they  had  thought  of  a 
king,  or  god,  of  all  the  frogs  or  all  the  serpents.  They 
divided  nature  off  into  departments,  with  a  deity  supreme 
in  and  ruling  each.  Thus  ^Eolus  became  god  of  the 
winds,  Neptune  of  the  oceans  and  seas,  Jupiter  of  the 
heavens,  Pluto  of  the  under  world  of  spirits,  and  so  on. 
The  individual  spirit  in  each  individual  thing  was  not  at 
first  destroyed :  only  there  was  one  chief,  like  the  chief  of 
a  tribe,  who  held  the  allegiance  of  all.  You  see  here  the 
social  and  political  condition  reflected  in  the  religion. 
This  only  shows  how  all  the  different  departments  of 
human  thought  and  life,  social,  political,  philosophical, 
and  religious,  keep  even  step  and  progress  side  by  side. 
One  side  of  humanity  does  not  outrun  another.  Not  only 
did  they  have  gods  of  the  several  departments  of  nature ; 
but  they  gradually  rose  to  the  conception  of  abstract 
ideas,  and  had  deities  to  represent  the  departments  of 
thought  and  the  various  mental  life.  So  Apollo  was  the 
god  of  eloquence,  Minerva  the  goddess  of  wisdom,  the 
Muses  superintended  poetry  and  the  arts. 

One  step  more  brought  the  human  mind  to  anthropo- 
morphic monotheism^  That  is,  they  generalized  still 
more ;   and  instead   of  gods  supreme   in   their   different 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  219 

departments,  like  the  kings  of  sovereign  states,  they  con- 
ceived a  universal  monarchy  of  the  world.  But  as  yet 
this  universal  monarch  was  only  a  mighty  and  gigantic 
being  in  the  image  of  man ;  for  they  could  think  of  no 
higher  power  than  that  which  humanity  represented.  And, 
though  he  was  supreme,  the  other  gods  were  not  dead. 
The  conception  was  very  much  like  the  theory  of  our 
government,  in  which  the  president  is  supreme  executive, 
while  still  the  governors  rule,  as  subject  to  him,  over  the 
several  states.  Even  Israel  at  first  had  no  higher  idea 
than  this  of  their  Jehovah.  They  sing  of  him  as  being 
"a  great  king  above  all  gods."  The  "all  gods"  are  real 
beings:  only  Jehovah  is  "king  above"  them.  In  the 
progress  of  thought  these  subject  gods  at  last  die  out,  or 
else  become  degraded  to  the  position  of  rebellious  but 
yet  conquered  and  subject  devils.  This  last  was  the  con- 
dition of  things  in  the  popular  thought  of  early  Christi- 
anity ;  and  it  is  the  condition  of  things  in  popular  Chris- 
tianity to-day ;  only  that  the  people  who  still  believe  in 
the  devils  have  forgotten  where  they  came  from,  and  how 
the  belief  originated.  God  is  still  to  most  minds  only  a 
gigantic  man,  acting  on  human  motives  and  impulses,  and 
according  to  human  methods. 

But  among  the  higher  thinkers  of  all  ages,  there  has 
been  a  tendency  to  take  the  fourth  and  highest  step  of  all, 
—  that  leading  to  a  purely  spiritual  monotheism.  Jesus 
gave  it  its  purest  old-time  expression,  when  he  said,  "  God 
is  a  spirit,"  and  taught  that  he  did  not  dwell  in  any 
one    material    place,   like  the   ark,   the   temple,   Gerizim, 


220  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


or  Moriah.  Modern  science,  culminating  in  evolution, 
rounds  out  and  completes  this  conception  by  teaching  that 
God  is  the  spirit  and  life,  underlying  and  giving  form  to 
all  things,  while  yet  he  transcends  all  thought,  and  eludes 
all  attempts  to  give  him  shape,  and  slips  through  the 
finest-wrought  meshes  of  all  the  creeds.  This  is  the  per- 
fect monotheism,  "  God  over  all,  and  in  all,  and  through 
all." 

The  outward  forms  of  all  religions  have,  of  necessity, 
taken  their  shape  from  the  prevalent  thought  of  the  time. 
Thus  the  growth  has  been  from  the  sorcery  and  charms 
of  fetichism,  through  animal  and  human  sacrifices,  prosti- 
tutions, symbol-worships,  idolatries,  rituals,  and  stately 
ceremonies,  up  to  the  high  spiritual  thought  that  true  wor- 
ship is  the  aspiration  and  adoration  of  the  heart,  and  that 
mercy  and  justice  and  truth  are  more  than  all  altars  and 
sacrifices.  Only  the  finest  thought  and  the  finest  living 
can  appreciate  this  last  even  yet.  It  seems  unsubstantial 
and  unreal  to  the  multitude ;  just  as  this  same  multitude 
cares  more  for  a  minstrel  than  a  symphony,  for  a  farce 
than  for  Hamlet,  for  a  chromo  than  a  Raphael. 

We  must  now  pass  to  the  evolution  of  the  ethical  side 
of  religion.  Morality  and  religion  are  closely  connected 
in  our  minds ;  but  originally  they  had  no  relation  to  each 
other.  At  first  men  prayed  and  sacrificed  to  and  wor- 
shipped the  gods,  not  because  they  thought  of  it  as  a 
moral  duty,  but  because  they  feared  them,  and  wished  to 
ward  off  some  supposed  danger ;  or  because  they  wished 
some  favor,  and  hoped  to  gain  it  in  this  way.     So  far  was 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  221 

the  fetich-worshipper's  mind  from  connecting  any  moral 
ideas  or  thoughts  of  right  or  wrong  with  the  worship  of 
his  gods,  that  he  did  not  conceive  his  gods  themselves 
as  moral,  or  as  caring  for  right.  One  does  not  seek  to 
please  the  devil  with  righteousness.  The  only  morality 
of  that  time  grew  out  of  the  simple  human  relationships 
in  which  they  stood  to  each  other ;  and  the  gods  and  reli- 
gion had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it.  The  same  was 
and  is  true  of  polytheism.  In  Greece  and  Rome,  the 
popular  religion  was  in  no  way  connected  with  the  popu- 
lar morality.  The  gods  were  simply  the  kings  and  rulers 
of  heaven  and  earth;  and  they  represented,  in  their  own 
characters,  all  phases  of  human  character,  even  its  vices 
and  crimes.  They  even  patronized  and  protected  vices 
and  crimes,  so  that  licentiousness  and  theft  and  murder 
were  sometimes  a  main  part  of  religion.  There  were,  in- 
deed, supposed  to  be  Fates  and  Furies  that  punished  the 
more  flagrant  outbreaks  of  wickedness  ;  and  in  later  ages 
they  thought  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  But 
they  were  only  after-thoughts.  Men  could  even  pray  to 
the  gods  for  help  in  some  deed  that  now  would  ostracise 
a  man  from  society,  or  shut  him  behind  prison-bars. 

The  moral  motive  and  sanction  in  communities  like 
ancient  Athens  were  purely  social  and  political ;  so  that, 
though  religion  and  morality  were  growing  side  by  side, 
though  they  re-acted  on  and  modified  each  other,  they  yet 
sprung  from  different  sources,  and  flowed  like  parallel 
rivers  before  they  come  to  a  junction. 

During  the  early  history  of  Israel,  religion  and  morality 


V 


222  v  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


were  quite  as  distinct  as  among  other  people.  Good  wor- 
shippers of  Jehovah  also  worshipped  Baal  and  Ashera 
with  obscene  rites ;  they  could  lie  and  steal,  and  be 
drunken,  and  murder,  could  neglect  father  and  mother, 
and  play  false  to  all  the  moralities  of  life,  and  yet  not 
forfeit  their  allegiance  to  the  national  God.  But  the  later 
conception  of  Jehovah  represented  him,  through  the 
mouths  of  the  prophets,  as  a  moral  God,  who  demanded 
"  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart "  on  the  part  of  his 
worshippers. 

In  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  religion  and  morality  came> 
into  still  closer  combination.  In  his  highest  thought  they 
became  identical.  To  love  God  with  all  the  heart,  and 
the  neighbor  as  ourself,  became  at  once  the  summing-up 
of  all  religion,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  perfect  formula 
of  morals.  But  in  the  hands  of  his  immediate  followers, 
and  of  those  who  gave  shape  to  Christianity  as  an  institu- 
tion in  the  world,  religion  and  morality  became  separated 
once  more.  Religion  was  metamorphosed  into  a  "  scheme 
of  salvation."  The  thing  to  be  saved  from  was  not  unright- 
eousness, but  hell ;  and  the  means  of  salvation  were  not 
right  thinking  and  living,  but  baptism  and  faith.  So  the 
grand  work  of  Jesus  was  partly  undone  by  his  disciples,  v 
Indeed,  his  thought  was  so  far  beyond  his  age,  that  only  a 
few  could  comprehend  it,  and  it  was  necessarily  degraded 
to  the  level  of  the  common  intelligence.  The  Church 
became  a  close  corporation,  holding  the  keys  of  heaven  as 
a  corporate  privilege,  for  the  exclusive  use  of  its  members. 
And  one   "without,"  however  moral  and  godlike,  could 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION". 


only  find  refuge  among  the  devils  in  hell ;  while  those 
"within,"  though  ever  so  vile,  had  become  partakers  of 
the  corporate  spirit  and  grace,  and  so  had  gained  a  "  right 
to  the  tree  of  life,  and  could  enter  into  the  city."  This  is 
Romish  doctrine  still.  The  brigand  of  modern  Italy 
looks  to  his  saint  to  help  him  plunder,  and  returns  the 
favor  by  offering  at  his  shrine  a  saint's  share  of  the  booty. 
So  it  is  nothing  strange  that  Tetzel  should  travel  through 
Europe  selling  papal  indulgences,  the  privilege  beforehand 
of  committing  all  sorts  of  sins  and  crimes,  so  only  that  he 
recompensed  the  Church,  which,  "  for  a  consideration," 
promised  to  keep  the  gate  of  heaven  ajar  for  him  till  he 
got  ready  to  go  in. 

And  this  same  idea  taints  Protestantism  still.  The 
ecclesiastical  conditions  of  salvation  are  held  in  such  hi^h 
esteem  that  even  to-day  a  heresy  is  less  easily  forgiven 
than  an  immorality.  Mr.  Moody  stands  up  in  New  York, 
with  all  New  York  Protestantism  at  his  back,  and,  without 
one  audible  undertone  of  dissent,  asserts  that  morality 
"  don't  touch  the  question  of  salvation."  It  is  still  only 
an  ingenious  ecclesiastical  "  scheme,"  by  which  God  is 
enabled  to  snatch  sinners  with  his  one  hand,  called  sal- 
vation, out  of  his  other  burning,  dark  hand,  called  dam- 
nation. If  only  church-members  are  logical,  it  is  no 
special  wonder  that  Washington  should  be  full  of  "  Chris- 
tian statesmen  "  who  dabble  in  "  Credit  Mobiliers,"  and 
that  ministers  like  Winslow  should  find  it  convenient  to 
go  to  Rotterdam.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  Church 
should  preach  that  its  members  ought  to  be  moral,  so 


224*/  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

long  as  it  also  preaches  that  its  great  end  and  aim, 
salvation,  hangs  on  something  not  connected  with  mo- 
rality. 

Evolution  goes  back,  and,  taking  up  the  pure  word  ofA 
Jesus,  completes  and  enforces  it  with  all  the  knowledge 
and  emphasis  of  modern  science.     When  it  makes  all  law, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual,  only  the  manifestation 
of   the  living,   loving,   righteous  God,   then  it  absolutely 
identifies  religion  and  morality,  or  makes  morality  only  a 
part  of  the  greater  and  grander  thing,  religion.     God  is 
not  any  longer  a  being  sitting  apart,  to  be  pleased  or  dis- 
pleased by  what  you  do,  or  do  not  do,  as  pertaining  per- 
sonally to  him,  while  life  here  in  the  world  is  something 
disconnected  from  him.     But  God  is  here,  all  about  us 
and  in  us.     He  is  in  sun  and  air  and  ocean  and  earthy 
He  is  in  heart-beat  and  brain-throb,  in  every  fibre  and 
muscle  and  thrilling  nerve  of  the  body.     He  is  not  only  * 
in  the  truths  of  religion,  but  he  is  in  the  truths  of  science/ 
The  laws  of  the  intellect  are  his  laws ;  the  light  of  truth 
is  his  licrht ;  the  moral  relations  in  which  we  stand  to  our 
fellow-men  are  the  expression  of  his  thought  and  life  in 
humanity.     So  that  duty  to  God  becomes  absolutely  iden- 
tical with  all  human  duty.     Righteousness  before  God  is 
absolutely  identical  with  all  human  righteousness.     Pleas-\ 
ing  God  is  obeying  all  his  laws.     Salvation  can  possibly/ 
be  nothing  more  nor  less  than  coming  into  perfect  accord 
with  the  whole  life  and  movement  of  things.     A  man  is 
saved  just  in  so  far  as  he  knows  and  obeys  the  laws  of 
God     Perfect  salvation  is  perfect  knowledge  and  obedi 


V 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  225 

ence.     A  man  in  this  condition  is  of  necessity  perfectly 
moral  and  perfectly  religious. 

Thus  the  teaching  of  evolution  completely  accomplishes^ 
what  Jesus  began,  but  what  popular  Christianity  failed  to 
carry  out,  —  it  identifies  and  makes  one  the  moral  motive 
and  the  religious  motive.  The  gods  have  become  one  y/ 
that  one  has  become  spirit ;  and  that  spirit  has  become 
the  life  and  inspiration  of  all  goodness  and  truth  and 
beauty  in  state,  in  society,  in  the  individual,  in  art,  in 
letters,  in  science.  Indeed,  in  the  grandest  sense,  God 
has  become  "  all  and  in  all." 

If  evolution  be  true,  the  life  of  the  universe  is  one  life. 
And  since  religion  is  a  part  of  this  life,  if  evolution  be 
true,  the  religious  life  of  the  world  must  be  one.  Let  us, 
then,  search  for  the  essence  of  religion,  see  whether  it 
exists  everywhere,  and,  therefore,  whether  there  are  many 
different  religions,  of  which  Christianity  is  one ;  or 
whether  there  is  only  one  religion,  of  which  Christianity 
is  the  highest  outgrowth  and  expression.  Science  teaches 
us  that  there  is  only  one  life  on  the  globe.  From  the 
little  viscous  globule  that  palpitates  in  primeval  seas,  or 
the  lichen  that  creeps  over  the  rock,  up  through  all 
ascending  forms  of  plant  and  animal,  till  you  reach  the 
infinitely  involved  brain  of  Newton  working  a  problem  in 
the  differential  calculus,  the  imagination  of  Praxiteles 
seeking  the  hidden  god  in  the  block  of  marble,  or  the 
complex  arts,  societies,  and  politics  that  issue  in  our 
world-wide  civilization,  —  everywhere  and  all  through  and 
all  up,  it  is  one  life  that  beats  in  it  all.     So  evolution 


226  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

teaches  that  the  blindest  gropings  in  the  realm  of  religion 
were  only  poor,  weak  human  hands  and  feet  feeling  after 
the  lowest  step  in  "the  world's  great  altar-stairs,  that 
slope  through  darkness  up  to  God."  The  fetich-worship- 
per, with  the  best  light  and  knowledge  he  had,  went  "feel- 
ing after  God,  if  haply  he  might  find  him,"  who  is  "  not 
far  from  any  one  of  us."  It  was  not  depravity  on  his 
part  when  he  stood  in  awe  of,  and  worshipped,  and  sacri- 
ficed and  prayed  to,  a  stick  or  a  reptile.  He  saw  therein' 
the  infinite  mystery  and  life  of  the  world,  and  interpreted 
it  as  well  as  his  ignorance  permitted ;  and  so  constructed 
a  religion  as  high  for  him  as  ours  is  for  us, — that  is,  a 
religion  as  true  and  high  as  his  philosophy  enabled  him  to 
think.  He  was  not  so  foolish  as  to  worship  the  stick :  it 
was  the  mysterious  and  wonderful  life  in  the  stick,  he 
adored.  He  who  to-day  reverences  the  church,  the  altar, 
a  day,  or  the  Bible,  is  doing  the  same,  with  the  difference 
there  is  between  a  man  and  a  child.  The  child  thinks 
and  feels  and  imagines  as  a  child ;  but  it  is  the  same  life, 
the  same  brain,  the  same  heart,  that  make  the  after  man. 
So  that  which  the  child-man  reached  after  and  thought  of 
was  the  best  interpretation  he  could  give  of  the  same  God 
in  nature  that  "  the  heavens  declared,  and  the  firmament 
showed,  and  day  and  night  uttered  speech  "  of,  to  the 
Psalmist,  —  the  same  that  we  see  in  all  things  to-day. 
And  when,  in  after  times,  they  offered  to  God  their  chil- 
dren in  human  sacrifice,  it  was  not  human  depravity  that 
prompted  the  (to  us)  murderous  deed.  Jephthah  tenderly 
loved  his  daughter ;  Abraham's  heart  yearned  over  Isaac ; 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  227 

the  Ganges  mother  clung  to  her  babe  with  the  same  heart- 
wringing  mother-love  that  throbs  in  your  bosoms.  But 
the  gods  were  inexorable ;  and  they  gave  with  heart-break 
and  tears  that  which  was  dearest,  because  heaven  de- 
manded the  precious  gift  by  all  the  sanctions  of  religion. 
Though  the  deed  was  horrible,  it  was  reverence  and  fear 
for  the  gods,  that  nerved  the  arm,  and  steeled  the  heart. 
It  was  the  same  religious  motive  in  the  heart  as  that 
which  made  the  martyrs,  and  has  been  the  inspiration,  in 
all  ages,  of  heroism  and  noble  deeds.  And  even  the  ser- 
vices of  impurity  had  behind  them  the  motive  of  supposed 
divine  sanction  and  religious  obedience.  So  that  when  the 
Santal  uses  his  fetich  for  a  charm,  when  the  Parsee  fire- 
worshipper  bows  before  the  rising  sun,  when  the  Hindoo 
lies  down  to  be  crushed  by  his  Juggernaut,  when  the 
Chinaman  offers  incense  before  the  image  of  his  ances- 
tors, when  the  Buddhist  devotee  sits  beneath  a  tree,  and 
all  day  recites  some  holy  and  magic  word,  when  the 
Romanist  bows  to  the  crucifix,  when  the  Ritualist  recites 
from  his  book,  when  the  Quaker  sits  silent  and  waits  for 
the  spirit,  when  the  Protestant  bows  in  prayer,  or  when 
the  philanthropist  goes  out  on  some  deed  of  mercy, 
believing  that  "  he  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best,"  —  in  all 
these  human  bosoms  beats  the  one  throbbing,  human 
heart ;  and  each,  according  to  his  knowledge,  seeks  to 
worship  the  mysterious  life  of  all  things,  that  we  call  God, 
after  the  highest  and  most  sacred  fashion  which  he  has 
learned.  However  inadequate  his  conception  of  God,  he 
still  seeks  to  find  the 


228  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

"  Father  of  all,  in  every  age, 
In  every  clime,  adored,  — 
By  saint,  by  savage,  and  by  sage,  — 
Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord." 

The  thought  of  God  that  is  held  may  be  wild,  chaotic, 
and,  to  our  mind,  wicked.  But  his  art  and  his  govern- 
ment and  his  civilization  are  the  same ;  and  he  thinks,  in 
the  one  case,  on  a  level  with  his  thought  in  the  other. 
Religion  can  have  no  expression  higher  than  the  age  is 
capable  of:  so  it  advances  with  the  advance  of  man. 
But  the  point  is,  that  all  religions  are  reaching  out  after 
the  same  God  that  each  one  of  them  fancies  it  has  found. 
It  is  the  same  religious  nature  of  man  in  all  the  varied 
manifestations.  Thus  religion  is  one  just  as  art  is  one, 
or  literature  is  one.  Each  age  and  each  nation  finds  its 
own  expression ;  and  each  one  is  true  or  false  according 
as  it  approximates  more  or  less  nearly  to  the  perfect  truth 
of  things. 

But  when  I  say  that  religion  is  one,  do  I  then  say  that 
one  religion  is  as  good  as  another,  and  that  Christianity  is 
no  more  divine  than  any  other  ?  Let  us  see.  Human 
thought  is  one;  that  is,  it  is  all  alike  the  product  of 
human  brains,  and  differs  only  in  quality  and  degree: 
do  I  therefore  say  that  Newton's  thought  is  on  a  level 
with,  and  no  better  than,  that  of  a  clown  ?  Poetry  is  one  : 
is  therefore  Shakspere  no  higher  or  more  divine  than 
Tupper  or  Walt  Whitman  ?  Art  is  one :  is  this  to  say 
that  the  snow-man  that  makes  the  holiday  frolic  of  a  lot 
of   boys  is  to  be  put  on  the  same  level  as  the  Moses 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  229 

of  Angelo,  or  the  Christ  of  Thorwaldsen  ?  In  all  these 
cases,  the  infinite  range  of  production  is  the  work  of 
precisely  the  same  faculties,  that  differ  only  in  the  kind 
and  quality  of  work.  And  each  special  work  is  true  and 
valuable  just  in  so  far  as  it  expresses  the  true  and  the 
divine  in  its  department.  So  all  religions  are  the  out-\ 
growth  of  the  divine,  the  religious  nature,  in  man.  But 
there  are  all  degrees  of  truth,  of  excellence,  and  therefore 
of  divinity,  ranging  from  the  deformities  of  the  rudest 
fetich,  up  to  the  divinest  thoughts  and  scriptures  and 
hymns  and  prayers  of  the  loftiest  seers  of  the  world/ 
Christianity,  then,  is  not  something  thrust  into,  but  apart 
from,  the  growing  order  of  the  world,  any  more  than 
Handel's  "  Messiah  "  is  out  of  tune  and  accord  with  all 
the  music  of  humanity  that,  beginning  with  the  rudest 
song  and  pipe  of  reeds,  leads  up  to  and  culminates  in  its 
grand  harmonies.  Christianity  is  the  highest  outcome  of? 
religious  evolution,  just  as  man  is  the  highest  outcome  of 
animal  life.  It  is  no  more  severed  from  the  rest  than  the/ 
full-blown  rose  is  severed  from  the  little  twig  that  broke 
the  seed,  and  developed  into  the  bush.  It  is  the  bright- 
colored,  sweet-scented,  and  consummate  flower  on  the  top- 
most bough  of  the  religious  life  of  man. 

Since,  then,  Christianity  is  the  result  of  evolution,  is  it 
to  be  expected  that  evolution  will  still  go  on,  and  ulti- 
mately outgrow  and  leave  Christianity  behind  ?  This  is 
the  hasty  logic  of  some.  Christian  schemes  of  salvation,\ 
Christian  cosmogonies,  Christian  ecclesiasticisms,  Chris- 
tian rituals,  —  these  may  and  probably  will  be  outgrown^ 


230    V  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Much  of  what  is  called  Christian  theology  will  be 
sloughed  off  and  left  behind,  as  a  growing  bean  rejects 
its  pod.  All  life  takes  to  itself  form,  and  clothes  itself 
in  outward  symbols  and  institutions;  but  these  are  only 
clothes  that  are  cut  and  worn  after  the  fashion  of  the  age. 
A  boy  may  change  the  cut  and  style  of  his  clothing  with 
every  year ;  and  he  must  put  on  larger  as  he  grows,  to 
suit  the  developing  size  and  figure  of  his  body;  and  he 
may  wear  as  many  fashions  as  ingenious  tailors  can  in- 
vent ;  but  all  through,  from  infancy  to  age,  it  is  the  same 
boy  becoming  youth  and  man.  If,  therefore,  ChristianityX 
does  put  off  its  old  clothes,  and  put  on  larger  ones  as  it 
gets  larger,  it  will  not  necessarily  follow  that  Christianity 
itself  will  be  outgrown  and  left  behind.  If  it  contain  in 
itself  any  touch  of  the  universal  and  eternal,  it  must  live 
forever ;  and  if  this  something  that  is  eternal  in  it  be  of 
its  very  essence,  as  Jesus  taught  it,  we  may  still  logically 
hold  that  it  is  Christianity.  / 

As   I    have   already   shown,  when  Jesus   said,  "Thou\ 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy 
neighbor   as   thyself,"  he  gave   utterance   to  words   thay 
absolutely  identified  religion  and  morality,  and  linked  all 
life  with  God  in  the  same  sense  in  which  it  is  to-day  done 
by  the  doctrines  of  evolution.     These  words  Jesus  made 
central;   and   they  are  the  formula   of   a  perfect  human* 
life.     So  that,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the  utmost  progress' 
of  evolution  in  human  life  —  individual,  social,  political 
—  can  only  approximate  more  and  more  closely  to   this, 
infinitely  progressive  and  expansive  ideal.     It  means  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  231 

command  to   be  perfect ;   and  even  God  himself   cannotN 
outgrow  perfection.  ' 

While,  then,  the  popular  forms  and  creeds  and  institu- 
tions may  be  outgrown,  and  replaced  by  better,  the  essen- 
tial spirit  and  life  of  Christianity  will  become  more  and 
more  the  essence  and  spirit  of  evolution  itself,  so  far  as 
it  bears  on  humanity.  The  whole  force  of  evolution, 
henceforth,  will  lift  up  and  urge  on  humanity  toward  the 
fullest  and  highest  Christian  life. 

Is  evolution,  then,  a  radical  or  a  conservative  element 
in  religion  ?  It  is  both.  It  is  radical  in  so  far  as  it 
eats  away,  tears  down,  and  leaves  behind,,  the  transient 
and  perishable  forms ;  for  these  things,  when  decayed  and 
fallen,  only  become  obstructions  in  the  pathway  of  human 
progress.  But  so  far  as  essence  and  life  are  concerned, 
evolution  is  conservative.  It  teaches  that  the  one,  all- 
important  thing  is  life.  The  forms  live  for  it,  and  not  it 
for  the  forms  :  so  it  does  not  regard  a  partial,  incomplete, 
or  even  grotesque  form,  so  objectionable  that  it  is  to  be 
got  out  of  the  way  at  so  great  a  cost  as  the  risk  of  the 
life  it  holds.  It  will  keep  a  flower  in  a  cracked  flower- 
pot, rather  than  risk  the  flower  itself,  by  knocking  the  pot 
away.  It  will  leave  a  man  the  inadequate  shelter  of  his 
hut,  rather  than  tear  it  clown  about  his  ears  in  a  storm, 
before  it  can  invite  him  into  a  better  house.  Regarding 
all  things  as  a  growth  from  small  beginnings,  it  does  not 
teach  the  top  of  a  tree  to  ignore  its  roots,  nor  a  man- 
sard house-roof  to  despise  the  mudsills,  nor  a  man's  head 
to  scorn  his  feet.     It  is,  therefore,  tolerant  of  ignorance 


232  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


and  half-development,  and  the  slow  process  by  which  a 
little  comes  to  be  more.  Since  it  took  God  millions  of 
a^es  to  get  the  earth  habitable  even  for  reptiles,  it  does 
not  ask  him  to  lift  the  reptiles  up  into  humanity,  and 
make  humanity  absolutely  complete,  in  six  days. 

Thus  evolution  is  tolerant  even  of  fetichism.     It  would 
not  knock  an  idol  out  of  an  ignorant  religionist's  hands, 
except  as  it  can  replace  it  by  a  purer  and  truer  symbol. 
It  would  not  destroy  Mohammedanism,  except  by  repla- 
cing it  in  the  minds  of  its  devotees  by  a  nobler  God  than 
Allah,  and  a  better  morality  than  that  of  the  Koran.     It 
will  permit  the  Romanist  Irish  girl  to  keep  her  beads  and 
her  mass  until  she  can  grow  into  a  conception  of  a  higher 
and  more  spiritual  religion.     To  take   these   away,  and 
leave  her  empty-handed  and  empty-hearted,  is  against  its 
whole  spirit,  and  seems  to  it  impiety.     It  lets  the  boy 
keep  his  toys  until,  having  become  a  man,  he  is  ready  to 
"put  away  childish  things."     So  the  attitude  of  evolution 
toward  orthodoxy  is  such  as  makes  it  rejoice  that  men  will 
cling  to  orthodoxy  until  they  can  see  and  feel  that  some- 
thing else  is  better.     The  moral  and  religious  life  first  and 
highest.     Religious  forms  and  creeds  and  rituals  are  only 
the  expression  of  its  life,  and  made  to  serve  it.     As  the 
life  lifts  and  broadens  it  will  lift,  break  up,  and  sweep 
away  its  covering  that  threatened  to  be  its  bond,  as  the 
spring  freshet  tosses  on  its  bosom  and  sweeps  away  the 
ice  that  covered  it,  but  was  not  strong  enough  to  hold  it 
in  chains. 

Evolution,  then,  in  religion,  will  seek  to  find  and  spread 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION.  233 

abroad  all  truth,  believing  that  the  inner  life  is  able  to 
stretch  the  bark,  and  fit  it  to  its  various  stages  of  life  and 
growth.  It  tolerates  the  twilight  because  it  leads  to  the 
sunrise.  Its  trust  is  in  time,  light,  growth,  and  God.  It 
is  patient  with  the  lower  form  of  life,  and  also  with  the 
lower  life  of  man  ;  for  it  knows  that  these  are  but  the 
necessary  childhood  of  life,  that  at  last  shall  grow  up  to 
and  culminate  in 

"  The  crowning  race 

Of  those  that,  eye  to  eye,  shall  look 
On  knowledge  ;  under  whose  command 
Is  earth,  and  earth's,  and  in  their  hand 

Is  nature  like  an  open  book  ; 

"  No  longer  half  akin  to  brute  ; 

For  all  we  thought  and  loved  and  did, 
And  hoped  and  suffered,  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit." 

And  so,  holding  always  any  present  to  be  but  the  seed 
of  a  better  future,  it  trusts  in  and  waits  for  the  still  larger 
unfolding  of 


*s> 


"  That  God  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  divine,  far-off  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 


XII. 

IMMORTALITY. 

The  belief  in  some  kind  of  a  future  life  seems  to  be  as 
old  as  humanity.  The  testimony  on  this  subject  is  much 
more  ancient  than  any  written  records.  It  speaks  to  us 
from  the  excavations  where  have  been  discovered  the 
remains  of  prehistoric  man.  So  the  old  question  of  Job, 
"  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? "  had  been  asked  by 
the  same  human  heart  thousands  of  years  before  his 
day;  and,  rightly  or  wrongly,  it  had  been  answered  in 
the  affirmative. 

So  far  as  we  know,  the  animals  are  not  perplexed  over 
the  problems  of  life;  they  do  not  try  to  settle  right  and 
wrong.  They  shelter  themselves  from  storm;  they  bask 
in  the  sunshine;  they  eat  and  drink  and  sleep;  and,  when 
the  hour  of  death  approaches,  the  sheep  or  horse  or  dog 
lies  down  with  no  anxious  questioning  as  to  what  may 
come  after  death.  It  never  pauses  on  the  edge  of  des- 
tiny, like  Hamlet,  to  soliloquize :  — 

"  To  die  —  to  sleep,  — 
To  sleep  !  perchance  to  dream  :  ay,  there's  the  rub  ; 
For  in  that  sleep  of  death  what  dreams  may  come, 
When  we  have  shuffled  off  this  mortal  coil, 
Must  give  us  pause." 
234 


IMMORTALITY.  235 


Such  thoughts  and  speculations  as  these  are  confined 
to  humanity. 

At  what  precise  point  in  the  upward  lifting  of  animal 
to  man,  the  newly  developed  human  heart  began  to  raise 
these  questions  about  a  possible  future,  it  is  now  impossi- 
ble to  tell.  But  we  can  go  back  far  enough  to  trace  the 
probable  course  of  reasoning  out  of  which  the  belief  first 
rose.  Indeed,  we  may  find  this  same  primeval  belief  and 
primeval  reasoning  in  existence  to-day.  If  you  wish  to 
see  how  a  century-old  oak-tree  sprouts  and  grows,  all  you 
have  to  do  is  to  look  at  a  bursting  acorn,  and  watch  the 
unfolding  of  the  tiny  stem.  So  the  thoughts  of  the 
world  s  childhood  can  still  be  read  in  the  mental  pro- 
cesses of  those  races  that  are  in  their  childhood  still. 
In  this  way  we  can  come  at  the  origin  of  the  world's 
belief  in  a  future  life. 

These  first  men  reasoned  well,  considering  their  knowl- 
edge and  their  mental  powers.  It  seems  to  have  been 
something  in  this  way.  They  looked  on  the  body  of 
some  one  who  had  died :  here  were  the  feet  that  were 
so  swift  in  the  chase,  or  on  the  war-path ;  here,  the  hands 
that  bent  the  stiff  bow,  or  hurled  the  spear ;  the  eye,  that 
was  quick  and  sure  as  the  hawk's  for  his  prey,  was  dull 
and  sightless ;  the  heart  beat  no  longer ;  and  the  ear 
that  was  never  deaf  to  the  shout  of  a  comrade  or  the 
taunt  of  an  enemy  was  now  equally  indifferent  to  both. 
And  they  said  within  themselves,  as  they  saw  him  stiff 
and  cold  and  still,  "  This  is  not  all  there  was.  He  who 
loved  us,  and  fought  our  enemies,  and  hunted  with  us  the 


236  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

common  prey,  —  he  is  not  this  body :  he  has  gone  away. 
and  left  it.  He  was  more  than  this,  and  different  from 
it."  Thus,  of  necessity,  there  grew  up  the  thought  of 
life,  as  separate  from  the  body. 

Other  lines  of  reasoning  led  to  the  same  result.  They 
saw  forms  and  heard  voices  in  their  dreams.  Knowing 
nothing  of  their  true  origin  and  explanation,  of  course 
they  must  explain  them  as  best  they  could.  They  saw 
no  reason  why  their  dreaming  experiences  were  not  as 
real  as  their  waking  ones.  So  these  shadowy  forms  that 
came  and  hovered  about  them,  and  talked  with  them, 
they  learned  to  look  upon  as  real  persons.  And  when, 
after  a  friend  had  died,  he  came  to  them  in  dreams,  this 
seemed  to  solve  for  them  the  mystery  of  death ;  for  here 
was  the  same  old  face  and  figure  smiling  upon  and  speak- 
ing to  them,  though  the  body  was  in  the  grave.  So  they 
were  compelled  to  believe  that  every  person  was  double, 
having  a  body  and  another  self,  a  spirit  or  shadowy  one. 
They  knew  nothing  of  the  laws  of  sunlight,  by  which 
every  object  casts  a  shadow  when  the  light  falls  on  it ; 
and  they  saw  that  at  times,  when  it  was  cloudy,  or  when 
they  went  under  the  trees  or  into  their  huts,  these  mys- 
terious shadows  went  away,  or  hid  themselves.  Thus 
they  began  to  identify  their  shadows  with  this  second 
self  that  came  and  went  in  dreams,  and  that  went  away 
and  left  the  body  entirely  at  death.  It  was  this  second 
self  that  looked  up  into  their  faces  from  the  surface  of 
glassy  lakes  or  springs.  So  real  to  their  minds  was  this 
belief,  that  they  held  it  dangerous  to  walk  along  a  river's 


IMMORTALITY. 


bank  where  their  shadow  would  fall  into  the  water,  lest  a 
crocodile  should  seize  it,  and  so  cause  their  death.  They 
learned  to  believe  that  all  dreams  were  real  spirit  life, 
their  souls  going  off  on  a  journey,  or  else  other  souls 
coming  to  visit  them.  From  this  grew  the  world-wide 
belief  in  visions  as  revelations  from  the  unseen  world. 
And  all  the  modern  superstitions  about  dreams  as  being 
warnings,  or  signs,  have  had  a  similar  origin,  and  are 
only  survivals  from  these  old  times. 

They  identified  the  soul  with  different  parts  of  the 
body.  It  was  the  pupil  of  the  eye,  or  the  heart,  or  the 
blood,  or  the  breath.  In  Hebrew  thought,  God  was 
supposed  to  have  breathed  the  soul  into  the  nostrils  of 
Adam;  or,  as  in  the  law  it  is  said,  "the  blood  is  the 
life."  In  Homer,  the  "shade"  or  soul  of  the  warrior 
rushes  out  through  the  wound  that  causes  his  death. 
Among  other  peoples,  they  talked  of  the  heart's  going 
away,  or  coming  again,  as  the  life  ebbed  or  flowed. 

So  much,  then,  by  way  of  explanation  of  the  way  in 
which  the  thought  of  a  dual  life  in  man  first  sprung  up. 
A  word  now  as  to  the  nature  and  location  of  this  future 
life  from  the  first,  until  to-day.  The  earliest  notion 
seemed  to  be  that  the  soul  of  the  dead  would  still  con- 
tinue to  love  its  old-time  body  and  place  of  abode.  So 
it  was  supposed  to  hover  about  the  spot  of  burial,  or 
wander  through  the  village  that  was  its  home.  This 
oldest  of  all  ideas  still  lingers  in  the  thrills  of  supersti- 
tious fear  that  many  yet  feel  in  passing  a  graveyard  at 
night.     It  is  the  survival  of  the  ancient  thought  that  the 


238  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


spirit  still  stays  about  the  grave.  And  the  stories  of 
haunted  houses  are  only  remnants  of  the  old-world  belief 
that  the  soul  still  clings  to  its  earthly  abode.  And  the 
Egyptian  custom  of  preserving  the  body  in  the  form  of 
a  mummy  is  not  only  connected  with  their  belief  about 
a  bodily  resurrection,  but  also  grew  out  of  the  thought 
that,  so  long  as  they  kept  the  body,  they  could  also  pre- 
vent the  soul  from  going  far  away. 

The  next  stage  of  belief  is  higher.  It  was  thought  that 
the  ancestor  of  the  tribe  was  still  interested  in  it,  and 
retained  his  authority  over  it,  after  he  had  passed  away. 
So  it  was  supposed  that  he  was  engaged  in  preparing  a 
home  and  kingdom  for  the  spirits  of  his  descendants  in 
the  other  world.  They  believed  that  in  this  kingdom  he 
received  and  ruled  over  the  souls  of  his  tribe  as  they 
entered  the  shadow}'  land.  Dying,  then,  to  them,  was 
simply  going  to  the  fathers  of  the  tribe. 

A  third  stage  in  this  belief  was  that  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  Elysian  Fields  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
the  Islands  of  the  Blest,  or  the  Halls  of  Odin,  as  they 
were  imagined  by  our  Scandinavian  forefathers.  Socrates, 
on  the  eve  of  his  death,  talked  with  his  disciples  of  his 
expectation  that  in  the  Elysian  Fields  he  should  meet  and 
converse  and  walk  with  the  wise  and  the  great  and  the 
good  of  the  olden  times.  And  he  so  separated  his  body 
from  himself,  that,  when  one  of  his  friends  spoke  of  his 
burial,  he  said  playfully,  "You  may  bury  me  as  you 
please,  if  you  can  catch  me."  He  expected  to  be  away, 
though  the  body  was  left  behind. 


IMMORTALITY. 


239 


The  Jews  at  first  had  no  knowledge  of  any  future  life  ; 
but,  when  the  notion  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  grew  up 
among  them,  they  believed  that  the  coming  deliverer  of 
David's  line  would  raise  the  dead,  and  establish  an  ideal 
and  everlasting  kingdom  on  the  renovated  earth.  So 
their  hope  was  purely  a  material  one. 

I  would  have  you  take  notice  that  thus  far  there  is 
almost  no  trace  of  any  friendship  with  the  gods,  or  of  any 
heaven  to  be  spent  in  their  company.  The  Halls  of  Odin 
are  really  no  exception  to  this  statement;  for  this  eternal 
feast  was  only  for  the  bravest  of  the  warriors  who  died 
fighting  in  battle.     Common  humanity  had  no  part  in  it. 

The  last  historic  step  of  which  I  wish  you  to  take  notice 
is  the  early  Christian  conception  of  heaven  with  God. 
This,  at  first,  was  only  the  Hebrew  Messianic  idea  some- 
what modified.  John,  in  the  Apocalypse,  pictures  "the 
new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,"  and  describes  "the  city 
of  God  descending  from  God  out  of  heaven,"  to  abide  on 
the  earth.  In  this  gem-gated  and  gold-streeted  city,  the 
"  nations  of  them  that  are  saved  "  were  to  "  dwell ;  and 
God  was  to  dwell  with  them,  and  be  their  God."  Re- 
inhabiting  their  resurrected  bodies,  the  redeemed  were  to 
live  in  this  material  and  glorious  city.  They  would  need 
no  sun  nor  moon,  for  God  was  to  be  their  light.  They 
were  never  to  go  out,  and  death  was  never  to  enter. 
Such  was  the  immediate  expectation  of  the  early  Church. 
But,  as  this  delayed,  they  began  to  imagine  the  city  of 
God  as  just  above  the  solid  arch  of  the  firmament,  and 
to  think  that  there  their  friends  were  gone.     When  mod- 


240  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ern  astronomy  destroyed  this  old-time  firmament,  and  the 
world  learned  that  it  was  only  an  optical  illusion,  of 
course  the  location  of  heaven  must  be  changed.  (For 
now  we  know,  though  it  is  very  recent  knowledge,  that 
the  arch  of  heaven  is  only  light  and  air,  like  that  which  is 
all  about  us.)  Then  speculation  placed  heaven  in  the 
moon.  By  others,  books  have  been  writted  to  prove  that 
it  is  in  the  sun.  "  The  To-Morrow  of  Death "  twists 
science  in  the  most  fantastic  way,  to  support  this  last 
idea.  Some  have  thought  heaven  might  be  on  the  star 
Alcyone,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  centre  of  the  great 
star-system  to  which  our  solar-system  belongs.  And  in  a 
recent  sermon  Mr.  Talmage  (who  talks  as  if  he  had  been 
there,  and  knows)  asserts  that  it  is  located  on  the  central 
sun  of  the  universe,  which  he  supposes  to  be  millions  of 
times  larger  than  any  other.  Since  Mr.  Talmage  has 
given  the  weight  of  his  tremendous  authority  on  this 
point,  of  course  it  is  of  no  practical  importance  for  me  to 
add  that  no  other  man  living  knows  any  thing  about  the 
existence  or  the  nature  of  any  such  orb.  We  know  that 
there  are  stars  so  distant  that  the  more  than  lightning- 
like velocity  of  light  requires  some  millions  of  years  to 
travel  the  distance  that  separates  them  from  the  earth. 
But  though  Mr.  Talmage's  heaven  is  farther  off  than 
these,  he  assures  us  that  souls  can  make  the  journey  in 
a  fractional  part  of  a  second.  This  is  a  great  comfort  ; 
for  otherwise  we  might  be  left  to  fear  that  even  Adam, 
during  these  six  thousand  years,  had  hardly  got  started 
out  on  his  journey  even  yet. 


IMMORTALITY.  241 


One  of  the  standing  charges  of  the  Church  against 
science  is,  that  it  is  materialistic.  I  wish,  in  passing,  just 
to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  whole  ecclesi- 
astical conception  of  the  future  life  has  been,  and  is  still, 
pure  materialism.  The  material  body  is  to  rise  and  dwell 
in  a  material  heaven. 

Such,  then,  have  been  some  of  the  more  prominent 
speculations  of  the  world  concerning  the  nature  and  loca- 
tion of  heaven.  We  can  think  and  believe  and  hope ;  but 
any  intelligent  and  thoughtful  man  will  hesitate  before  he 
will  assert  that  he  knows  any  thing  about  it.  Ignorance  is 
confident ;  for  it  has  always  been  true,  as  Pope  says,  that 
"  Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread."  But  reverent 
knowledge  will  wait  for  light. 

All  these  forms,  then,  under  which  the  hope  of  a  future 
life  has  been  held,  have  been  disproved  and  outgrown  by 
modern  knowledge.  And  here  comes  in  the  great  ques- 
tion, Must  we  therefore  give  up  the  hope  as  irrational  ? 
Is  it  only  a  dream  of  the  world's  childhood  from  which  its 
larger-grown  intelligence  awakes  ?  As  a  hope,  it  is  most 
magnificent ;  as  a  dream,  it  is  beautiful  and  grand.  And 
it  argues  strange  and  high  capacity  in  man,  that  he  should 
even  hope  or  dream  of  such  a  thing.  Of  course  we  will 
give  it  up  if  we  have  to ;  but  most  certainly  we  cannot  be 
expected  to  till  then.  Let  us,  then,  raise  the  question  as 
to  whether  there  is  any  theory  left  that  an  intelligent  and 
rational  man  can  hold.  As  I  look  over  human  thought,  I 
find  two,  which  I  must  try  and  make  clear  to  your  minds. 

(1)  There  is,  then,  first,  a   materialistic   theory  which 


242  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

our  present  knowledge  cannot  disprove  nor  make  absurd. 
It  is  well  known  that  all  our  senses  have  only  a  certain 
narrow  range  within  which  they  are  able  to  bring  us  into 
sensible  contact  with  the  world  about  us.  All  outside 
this  range  we  are  unable  to  reach.  For  example,  we  do 
not  see  all  forms  and  colors ;  we  do  not  hear  all  sounds ; 
we  do  not  smell  all  odors ;  we  cannot  consciously  touch 
all  substances;  we  cannot  taste  all  flavors.  Vision  de- 
pends on  the  wave-motions  of  light.  If  these  motions 
are  less  than  a  certain  number  in  a  second,  they  do  not 
produce  on  the  eye  the  sense  of  vision :  if  they  are  more 
than  a  certain  other  number,  we  cannot  see  them.  Thus 
the  narrow  range  between  two  definite  numbers  that  rep- 
resent the  quantity  of  wave-motion  in  a  second,  is  the  limit 
to  our  sense  of  sight.  A  whole  world  of  things  may  lie 
on  the  one  side,  and  another  world  on  the  other  side,  of 
this  limit,  in  the  presence  of  both  of  which  we  are  totally 
blind.  So  there  are  forms  and  colors  all  about  us  on 
every  hand,  that  we  do  not,  and  can  not  see.  And  a  simi- 
lar thing  is  true  of  our  ears.  We  can  hear  only  within 
certain  definite  limits.  Were  our  senses  acute  enough, 
the  silence  of  a  summer  midnight  would  become  to  us  a 
thunderous  tumult.  We  could  hear  the  flowers  grow  in 
our  garden  until  the  stillness  broke  into  a  noise  as  loud 
as  the  waves  on  the  seashore  in  a  storm.  Huxley  tells  us 
that,  if  we  could  hear  the  movements  in  the  growth  of  a 
stinging-nettle,  it  might  become  to  us  as  loud  as  the  rattle 
and  roar  of  a  great  city. 

For  any  thing  we  know  to  the  contrary,  then,  a  refined 


IMMORTALITY.  243 


and  spiritualized  order  of  existences  may  be  the  inhabit- 
ants of  another  and  an  unseen  world  all  about  us.  Mil- 
ton has  said,  — 

"  Millions  of  spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake,  and  when  we  sleep." 

Of  course,  the  poet's  words  do  not  prove  this  true ;  and 
all  I  care  to  say  about  it  is,  that  such  a  thing  is  possible. 
That  we  do  not  see  or  hear  them,  is  no  proof  that  they 
do  not  exist.  The  inter-planetary  spaces  may  be  the 
home  of  a  universe  of  life,  for  all  our  senses  can  say  to 
the  contrary.  I  suppose  that  some  such  idea  as  this  lies 
at  the  base  of  modern  Spiritualism.  I  have  never  yet 
been  convinced  that  it  is  proved ;  but  certainly  any 
knowledge  we  now  possess  cannot  say  that  such  exist- 
ence is  impossible. 

A  remarkable  book  has  been  recently  published,  called 
"  The  Unseen  Universe."  It  is  the  work  of  two  promi-  ■* 
nent  English  men  of  science.  It  attempts,  on  a  scientific 
basis,  to  establish  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  an 
unseen  world,  closely  connected  with  this,  from  which  the 
visible  universe  came,  and  to  which  it  will  return  again. 
It  would  take  too  long  for  me  to  give  you  the  outlines  of 
their  argument.  They  do  not  prove  the  fact;  but  they 
do  prove  the  possibility.     And  this  is  all  I  care  for  now. 

It  is  not  unreasonable,  then,  to  believe  in  the  possi^ 
bility  of  another  life,  even  if  your  theory  of  it  be  only  a 
refined  form  of  materialism.  /* 

(2)  But  there  is  another  possible  theory  that  is  purely 


244  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

spiritual.  Ever  since  the  first  man  saw  his  shadow,  and 
talked  about  his  other  self,  it  has  been  common  to  speak 
of  man  as  a  combination  of  mind  and  matter.  To  find 
out  what  mind  is,  whether  it  is  a  product  of  matter,  or 
something  distinct  from  it,  has  been  the  study  of  all  ages. 
But  the  question  is  not  settled  yet.  Some  scientific  mate- 
rialists claim  that  they  have  settled  it,  that  thought  is 
a  product  of  the  brain,  just  as  bile  is  a  product  of  the 
liver.  Moleschott  —  as  though  the  saying  decided  the 
question  —  declared,  "  No  thought  without  phosphorus  ;  " 
but  that  hardly  proved  that  thought  was  the  product  of 
phosphorus.  No  flash  of  lightning  without  the  proper 
atmospheric  conditions ;  but  that  does  not  prove  that 
these  conditions  create  electricity.  What,  then,  is  the 
belief  of  the  best  modern  thinkers,  about  the  relation  of 
mind  to  brain?  It  is  inclined  to  believe  that  the  only 
real  things  that  exist  are  the  mind  and  God,  and  that 
the  universe  is  only  the  infinitely  varied  manifestation  of 
God  to  the  human  consciousness.  For  instance,  let  us 
see  what  it  is  that  we  know  about  a  desk.  I  touch  it 
with  my  hand,  and  feel  the  sensation  of  touch.  Now, 
all  I  really  know  is  my  own  sensation,  and  that  some- 
thing outside  of  me  has  produced  this  sensation.  But 
that  all  this  outside  something  that  I  call  the  universe  is 
any  thing  other  or  more  than  the  manifestation  to  me 
of  the  infinite  God,  I  do  not  know. 

And  so  far  from  mind's  being  explained  as  the  product 
of  the  brain,  all  we  know  is,  that  the  action  of  mind 
coincides  with  certain  molecular  movements  in  the  brain 


IMMORTALITY.  245 


But  all  these  movements  can  be  explained  and  formu- 
lated without  any  reference  to  the.  mind  at  all.  The 
movement  of  electricity  along  a  telegraph-line  is  accom- 
panied by  certain  molecular  changes  in  the  wire  itself ; 
but  the  wire  is  not  electricity,  neither  does  it  produce  it. 
Thus  modern  science  has  found  it  utterly  impossible  to 
explain  mind  either  as  a  part  or  a  product  of  matter. 

It  is  perfectly  reasonable,  then,  for  any  man  to  believe 
in  a  purely  intellectual  and  spiritual  existence,  apart  from 
any  material  form  or  substance. 

You  will  notice  that  I  have  not  claimed  to  prove  either 
the  materialistic  or  the  purely  spiritual  theory  of  a  future 
life.  My  only  purpose  has  been  to  show  that  there  are 
theories  that  intelligent  people  can  hold,  even  in  the  clear- 
est light  of  modern  science,  without  laying  themselves 
liable  to  the  charge  of  beinir  irrational. 

Having  this  basis,  then,  to  stand  on,  let  us  review  some 
of  the  probabilities  of  the  case.  No  intelligent  man,  I  v 
suppose,  will  claim  that  he  can  demonstrate  immortality./' 
The  most  we  can  do  is  to  weigh  the  probabilities,  and  see 
how  strong  a  foundation  we  have  on  which  to  build  our 
hopes.  What  are  some  of  the  stones,  then,  that  go  to  the 
making  of  this  foundation  ? 

(1)  I  wish  to  make  one  negative  point.  Our  present^ 
ignorance  concerning  the  nature  or  even  the  fact  of  an 
immortal  life  is  no  valid  argument  against  its  reality^ 
Humanity  knows  nothing  beyond  the  range  of  the  experi- 
ence of  humanity.  By  the  very  terms  of  our  supposition, 
the  immortal  life   is   something   above   and   beyond   the 


246  v  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

earthly  experience  of  man.  The  caterpillar  probably 
knows  nothing  about  any  life  higher  than  that  of  his  toil- 
some crawling  on  the  ground ;  but  that  is  no  proof  against 
the  fact  that  we  know  he  is  to  become  a  butterfly.  The 
boy  knows  nothing  about  manhood,  and  cannot  know. 
Though  he  sees  men  and  their  labors  all  about  him,  he 
has  and  can  have  no  conception  whatever  of  what  it 
means  to  be  a  man :  it  transcends  all  his  experience. 

So,  if  there  is  a  life  very  much  different  from,  and  verj\ 
much  higher  than,  our  present  one,  it  is  not  strange  that 
we  are  ignorant  of  it.  It  is  perhaps  impossible  that  it/ 
should  be  otherwise.  I  could  not,  with  all  my  trying, 
make  you  understand  any  thing  entirely  unlike  all  you 
have  ever  seen  or  heard.  So,  if  an  angel  should  come 
and  tell  of  another  life,  it  would  mean  nothing  to  us, 
unless  he  could  translate  it  into  terms  of  our  own  experi- 
ence. We  could  not  understand  a  "  light  that  never  was 
on  land  or  sea."  Our  ignorance,  then,  is  not  even  a 
probability  against  the  belief. 

(2)  I  ask  you  to  notice  that  the  belief  exists,  and  has\ 
the  field.  It  holds  the  position,  and  will  stay,  unless  dis* 
lodged  ;  and,  of  right,  it  ought  to  stay.  It  is  practically 
true  to  say  that  all  men  everywhere  have  believed  in  a 
future  life  :  no  matter  under  what  form,  the  fact  remains. 
The  exceptions  have  been  hardly  enough  "  to  prove  the 
rule."  The  burden  of  proof,  then,  lies  with  the  doubters. 
If  the  universal  belief  is  a  falsehood  and  a  cheat,  it  is  foi 
them  to  prove  it  so.  The  universal  human  instinct  ar 
longing  is  well  uttered  by  Tennyson,  — 


IMMORTALITY.  247 


"  Thine  are  these  orbs  of  light  and  shade ; 
Thou  madest  life  in  man  and  brute ; 
Thou  madest  death  ;  and  lo  !  thy  foot 
Is  on  the  skull  which  thou  hast  made. 

"  Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust : 

Thou  madest  man,  he  knows  not  why  ; 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die ; 
And  thou  hast  made  him  :  thou  art  just." 

No   man   can   call   me   unreasonable   for  holding   the\ 
world-wide  creed  until  he  has  proved  to  me  that  it  is  not 
true. 

(3)  As  the  process  of  evolution  goes  on,  life  grows\ 
fuller  and  more  intense.  And  the  more  intense  the  life, 
the  stronger  grows  the  belief  in  its  continuance.  There/ 
are  times  of  sorrow  and  weariness  when  we  feel  thatlife 
itself  is  a  burden,  and  that  the  only  real  rest  and  peace 
are  to  be  found  in  long  and  dreamless  sleep.  I  have 
heard  of  some  who  felt  tired  at  the  thought  of  living  for- 
ever, and  who  hardly  wished  for  the  certainty  of  such 
belief;  and  it  is  fabled  that  old  Tithonus  begged  the 
gods  to  take  from  him  the  gift  of  an  earthly  immortality, 
it  grew  to  be  such  a  burden.  But,  in  all  these  cases,  the 
weary  ones  cumber  their  thought  of  immortal  life  with  the 
burdens  of  endless  earthly  cares.  So  it  is  not  life  that 
men  grow  weary  of :  it  is  only  the  troubles  and  sorrows 
that  take  away  from  the  sum  and  fulness  and  power  of 
life.  Life,  of  itself,  is  always  joy  and  strength.  So,  in 
spite  of  suicides,  of  the  poetry  that  longs  for  the  grave, 


24S  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

of   the  weariness   that  would  even  push  away  the   prof- 
fered cup  of  everlasting  life,  it  is  still  true  that 

"  Whatever  crazy  Sorrow  saith, 
No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 
Has  ever  truly  longed  for  death. 

"  'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant,  — 
O,  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant ; 
More  life,  and  fuller,  that  we  want." 

If  it  were  true  that,  the  larger  and  grander  life  be- 
comes, the  more  nearly  it  seemed  to  culminate  and  reach 
its  completion,  there  might  then  be  room  for  the  thought 
that  some  day  it  would  reach  its  limit,  and  so  naturally 
and  contentedly  come  to  an  end;  but  just  the  reverse  of 
this  is  true.  It  is  the  narrow  and  stinted  life  that  thinks 
it  knows  all,  and  is  contented.  It  is  men  like  Newton 
that  talk  of  standing  and  gathering  a  few  pebbles  on  the 
shore  of  an  infinite  ocean  that  lies  all  unexplored  before 
them.  The  larger  life  and  knowledge  grow,  then,  the 
more  they  reach  out  and  hunger  for  the  infinite  still 
unattained. 

(4)  It  is  a  law  of  evolution,  that,  when  it  reaches 
the  highest  form,  its  whole  force,  which  destroyed  lower 
forms  in  the  interest  of  higher,  now  turns  to  the  perfect- 
ins:  and  continuance  of  this  highest  form.  It  climbed 
through  lower  animals  to  man.  But  in  man  the  highest 
physical  form  is  apparently  reached.  So  now  it  works 
only  to   perfect  and   continue   humanity.     It   creates  no 


IMMORTALITY.  249 


«ol/ 


new  brain,  but  only  lifts  brain  higher.  It  creates  no 
new  moral  life  :  it  only  lifts  and  continues  and  intensifies 
the  old  moral  life.  It  makes  no  new  mind  or  spirit :  it 
only  broadens  and  deepens  mental  power,  and  increases 
the  consciousness  of  the  divine  and  eternal.  The  hiebA 
est  result  of  evolution,  then,  is  to  increase  and  strengthen 
in  man  his  consciousness  of  the  divine  and  spiritual  in 
life, —the  beauty,  the  truth,  the  right,  the  ideal,  the 
eternal.  He  comes  thus  into  conscious  possession  of/ 
things  that  must  be  a  part  of  the  everlasting  life  of  God. 

To  many  men,  poetry  is  nothing.  It  has  no  real  or 
appreciated  existence  for  them.  They  have  developed 
in  themselves  no  poetic  faculty  to  which  it  can  appeal. 
But  to  Milton  or  Dante  it  was  the  most  real  and  intense 
of  all  facts.  And  they,  and  such  as  they,  prove  that  it 
is  a  part  of  humanity.  There  are  many  for  whom  music 
is  no  reality  \  but  Beethoven  and  Mozart  ask  for  no 
demonstration  of  its  life  and  power.  Their  very  life  was 
music.  Praxiteles  and  Angelo,  and  Titian  and  Powers, 
need  no  proof  of  the  reality  of  art.  To  such  men,  the 
universe  is  art.  And  you  will  notice  that  men  become 
conscious  of  poetry  or  music  or  art,  only  as  they  develop 
and  live  in  those  faculties  of  their  bein?  that  find  ex- 
pression  in  these.  Why,  then,  is  it  not  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  the  great  religious  masters  of  the  world  so 
developed  the  spiritual,  the  divine,  the  eternal,  in  them- 
selves, as  Hi  become  conscious  or  ihcsc  hings,  as  lower 
men  are  conscious  of  the  material  ?  Emerson  says,  "  I 
admit  tnai  you  shall  find  a  good  deal  ot  scepticism  on 


250  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

this  subject,  in  the  streets  and  hotels,  and  places  of  coarse 
amusement.  But  that  is  only  to  sav  that  the  practical 
faculties  are  developed  taster  than  the  spiritual.  Where 
there  is  depravity,  there  is  a  slaughter-house  style  of 
thinking."  That  is,  the  man  who  lives  in  the  spiritual 
and  eternal  believes  in  the  spiritual  and  eternal. 

(5)  The  man  who  denies  immortality  must  explain^ 
why  it  is,  if  it  is  not  true,  that  men  possess  the  thought, 
the  hope,  the  dream.  The  most  flitting  fancy  has  its/ 
cause  as  much  as  has  a  mountain.  And  it  is  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  modern  science,  that  human  faculties 
are  the  result  of  outside  forces  that  created  them,  and  to 
which  they  respond.  For  example,  the  existence  of  eyes 
proves  light  and  objects  to  be  seen;  for  it  is  the  play  of 
light  and  external  objects  of  vision,  on  the  human  organ- 
ism, that  made  the  eyes.  Sound  created  ears;  and  so 
the  very  existence  of  ears  proves  the  reality  of  sound. 
The  sense  of  justice,  of  beauty,  of  truth,  can  thus  be 
explained  only  by  supposing  some  external  realities  that 
made  them,  and  which  they  thus  represent.  So  the  most 
natural  explanation  of  these  hopes  and  longings  after 
immortality  is,  that  they  are  created  by,  and  that  they 
represent,  some  eternal  reality  from  which  they  have 
sprung. 

(6)  No  creature  can   think   beyond   himself.     The  art— 
of  the  world  proves  that  art  is  a  native  element  of  hu- 
manity.    The  poetry  of  the  world  proves  that  humanity 

is  capable  of  poetry.  A  thousand  martyrs  prove  that 
heroism   is   a   part   of  humanity.     That  man,  then,  can^ 


IMMORTALITY. 


251 


think  of  God  and  the  infinite,  proves  that  there  is  some- 
thing of  the  divine  and  the  infinite  in  man.  If  a  horse/ 
could  sit  down  and  meditate  ;  if  he  could  study  his  own 
structure,  scan  the  universe,  put  noble  thought  into  noble 
verse,  think  and  speculate  about  the  nature  and  destiny 
of  horses,  —  it  would  be  held  to  prove  that  he  had  capa- 
cities that  lifted  him  out  of  the  plane  of  the  equine,  and 
gave  him  brotherhood  with  the  human.  If  man,  then, 
can  think  and  study  and  speculate  beyond  his  present 
self,  it  indicates  that  there  is  in  him  the  possibility  of 
overstepping  his  present  limitations,  and  emerging  upon 
a  higher  plane  of  existence. 

(7)  Then  there  is  the  sense  of  justice,  the  imperish- 
able belief  that  somewhere  and  somehow  all  things  shall 
come  out  right.  We  are  perpetually  pained  here  with/ 
the  sense  of  wrong.  Like  the  Psalmist  we  cry  out  that 
"  all  the  foundations  of  the  earth  are  out  of  course." 
The  wicked  prosper;  and  good  is  persecuted.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  Book  of  Job  is  the  problem  of  all  the  world 
and  of  all  time.  But  Job  did  not  answer  it;  and  this 
world  never  has  answered  it.  What  is  the  end  of  all  the 
sorrow  and  all  the  wrong?  If  there  be  no  justice  and 
right  at  the  heart  of  things,  then  whence  came  this  hu- 
man sense  of  just  and  right  ?  It  must  be  the  response 
in  us  to  some  eternal  reality.  And,  if  just  and  right  do 
represent  an  eternal  reality,  then  all  must  some  time  be 
well;  we  must 

"  Trust  that  somehow  good 
Will  be  the  final  goal  of  ill." 


252  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 

But  we  see  it  not  here  and  now ;  and  so,  out  of  this  long- 
ing, men  have  always  built  a  better  future.     And  to  the 

question,  — 

"  What  hope  of  answer  or  redress  ?  " 

has  always  come  the  response,  — 

"  Behind  the  veil,  behind  the  veil." 

What,  then,  is  our  thought?  The  belief  in  a  future\ 
life  is  a  natural  and  an  universal  one.  It  may  claim  the 
credit  of  being  native  and  essential,  unless  it  can  be 
disproved.  It  cannot  be  disproved.  The  most  that 
doubt  can  do  is  to  say  it  does  not  know.  It  may  stand, 
then  ;  and  no  one  may  justly  charge  it  with  unreason. 
Beyond  this  there  are  many  indications  that  point  toward 
this  belief  as  their  most  rational  solution.  This  hypothey' 
sis  of  a  future  is  the  one  that  most  naturally  accounts  for 
all  known  facts.  Such  being  the  case,  we  may  as  logi- 
cally claim  it  as  the  astronomer  claims  a  new  planet,  as 
yet  unseen,  as  the  needed  explanation  of  the  perturba- 
tions and  movements  that  ask  for  some  such  cause. 

The  most  important  thing  for  us  to  consider  practi- 
cally is  the  work  of  personally  co-operating  with  those 
forces  and  tendencies  in  us  that  are  fitted  to  lift  us  up 
into  vital  relationship  with  the  spiritual  and  the  eternal. 
Progress  sloughs  off,  and  leaves  behind  those  things  that 
are  not  fit  to  endure.  We  can  make  no  better  prepara- 
tion, then,  for  the  future,  than  to  develop  in  ourselves  so 
full  and  noble  a  life  that  God  cannot  afford  to  lose  us. 


IMMORTALITY. 


Let  us  make  ourselves  a  part  of  the  permanent  good  of 
things,  a  portion  of  the  eternal  order.  Then,  because 
that  lives,  we  may  live  also. 

As  illustrating  how  out  of  darkness  comes  grander 
revelations  than  day  could  make,  and  as  indicating  how 
the  truth  may  be  a  better  one  than  many  doubts  and 
fears  would  sometimes  indicate,  I  cannot  close  better 
than  by  quoting  Blanco  White's  sonnet  on  "  Night  and 
Death:"  — 

"  Mysterious  night !  when  our  first  parent  knew 
Thee  from  report  divine,  and  heard  thy  name, 
Did  he  not  tremble  for  this  lovely  frame, 

This  glorious  canopy  of  light  and  blue  ? 

Yet  'neath  the  curtain  of  translucent  dew, 
Bathed  in  the  rays  of  the  great  setting  flame, 
Hesperus  with  the  host  of  heaven  came, 

And  lo  !  creation  widened  in  man's  view. 

Who  could  have  thought  such  darkness  lay  concealed 
Within  thy  beams,  O  sun  !  or  who  could  find, 

While  leaf  and  fly  and  insect  lay  revealed, 

That  to  such  countless  orbs  thou  madest  us  blind  1 

Why  do  we,  then,  shun  death  with  anxious  strife  ? 

If  light  can  thus  deceive,  wherefore  not  life  ?  " 


v7\  B  R  A  /Tp= 

OF    THV 

UNIVERSITY 


14  DAY  USE 

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